Russian Ex-Spy In Radioactive Food Death

[Rob McCow]

The former Russian spy who claimed to have been poisoned by his country's government was killed by radioactive material in his body, it has been disclosed.
As detectives and specialist experts began a hunt for traces of the radiation, Alexander Litvinenko's family released his deathbed statement, pointing the finger of blame for his killing at Russian president Vladimir Putin.
But Mr Putin hit back at the allegations, insisting there was no proof that Mr Litvinenko's death was "violent".

So what on Earth is going on with this? Apart from me thinking 'That's how they got Cyril Shaps in Ambassadors of Death'?

Surely there are easier, more subtle ways to poison someone, especially someone who's going to rant and rave about the KGB on his death-bed?

Mr Litvinenko's deathbed statement said of Mr Putin: "You have shown yourself to be as barbaric and ruthless as your most hostile critics have claimed.
"You may succeed in silencing one man, but the howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Mr Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life.
"May God forgive you for what you have done, not only to me, but to beloved Russia and its people."

It can't be a publicity stunt, the death is just too nasty and painful for that. The poor man seems to have gained creedence through being an ex-spy, but do we really think he was poisoned by Russian government agents?

[Larry]

Surely there are easier, more subtle ways to poison someone, especially someone who's going to rant and rave about the KGB on his death-bed
?

well you could all ways use an umbrella..

[Paul Clement]

The KGB have used poison as a favoured means of assassination for years now. The umbrella that fired a Ricin dart used to kill Bulgarian Georgi Markov was believed to be at the instigation of the KGB, as was the poisoning of Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko. There was also a documentary on tv about it a few months ago, which had Anna Politkovskaya stating she believed she had been poisoned for opposing Putin's actions in Chechnya. Since then of course she was shot and killed, again believed at the order of the KGB.

[Rob McCow]

But aren't the KGB kaput? They were all disbanded as an organisation under the new Democratic Russian Constitution. They still have their police forces and military, but no secret police.

[Paul Clement]

But aren't the KGB kaput? They were all disbanded as an organisation under the new Democratic Russian Constitution. They still have their police forces and military, but no secret police.

I don't believe that at all. They may have changed their name and gone more undergroung but they're still there. It's just like the MI5 and MI6 in Britain, they may not be mentioned a lot but they are still working away.

[Larry]

But aren't the KGB kaput? They were all disbanded as an organisation under the new Democratic Russian Constitution. They still have their police forces and military, but no secret police.

Don't you believe it there are still a lot of old time hard liners in Russia, and every major country has it's secret services who are still operating out side the law. Our own MI5 & MI6 probably still carry out political assasinations from time to time so it should be no supprise if Russia have done the same.

[Carol Baynes]

The news has gone all James Bond! Aren't we meant to be avoiding certain plane flights because of this or did I imagine it??...

[Paul Monk]

This story is ridiculous! It just doesn't make sense. If you want to bump someone off to stop them blabbing then you don't do it with a complicated hard to produce radio isotope that kills very slowly, leaves a very obvious trail and causes a huge media panic (radiation is very news worthy). You choose ricin or something similar that kills very quickly and in virtually untraceable. And I'm not convinced that the health authorities are really finding trails of it everywhere. I'm not even convinced that they're experts on this sort of thing. I could go out on the streets of London with a contam monitor and find radioactivity all over the place. In fact I have done that a couple of times! Its great fun for unnerving people.
And if anyone is worried about getting radioactivity on you I wouldn't worry too much. You need to digest a fairly highly active amount in order to make you ill. The amounts you'd pick up off a plane seat would or something would be negligable. The air pollution in London is probably more harmful.

[Doctor Vendetta]

This story is ridiculous! It just doesn't make sense. If you want to bump someone off to stop them blabbing then you don't do it with a complicated hard to produce radio isotope that kills very slowly, leaves a very obvious trail and causes a huge media panic (radiation is very news worthy). You choose ricin or something similar that kills very quickly and in virtually untraceable.

Maybe the point was to send a message to Putins enemies that they aren't safe anywhere. "Stop what you are doing because we can get you any time we like!" Doing it in such an audacious and exotic way would serve to hammer home the message and also demonstrate to foreign powers that Putin is capable of standing up to them by blatantly murdering their citizens under their noses.

Of course all this could just be the result of a paranoid mans conspiracy theories, he could have been up to something sketchy himself and ingested the palonium by accident. But the thing is, everyone who knew Litvinenko has only nice things to say about him, Putin has a very shady track record, and only a few months ago gave his agents a licence to kill.

[Paul Monk]

I guess I hadn't thought of it from that angle.
I guess I struggle with the bad science of radioactivity reported in the media too much!