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British Police Identify Killer in Radiation Case
Posted by
Zonk
on Fri Jan 26, 2007 06:36 PM
from the hercule-poirot-to-the-white-phone-please dept.
from the hercule-poirot-to-the-white-phone-please dept.
reporter writes "According to a front-page story by The Guardian, British authorities have identified Andrei Lugovoi to be the murderer who used radioactive pollonium-210 to kill Andrei Litvinenko. The British government will ask Moscow to extradite Lugovoi. The Guardian states: 'Associates of the dead man have repeatedly accused President Vladimir Putin's government of being behind his murder, a claim the Kremlin rejects. While it is known that detectives believe they have uncovered evidence pointing to Mr Lugovoi's involvement, it is not clear whether they have established a motive for the murder'"
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Science: Former Spy Poisoned By Radiation In UK 432 comments
An anonymous reader writes "BBC new is reporting the death of the ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko with a major dose of radioactive polonium-210. But nobody knows how it got there. Suspicions have fallen upon the Russian security services (who deny involvement). The task of the pathologists now is to unpick what really killed him and how it was administered. Quite what techniques they will use to solve this puzzle is unclear." From the article: "A post-mortem examination on Mr Litvinenko has not been held yet. The delay is believed to be over concerns about the health implications for those present at the examination. But Roger Cox from the HPA said a large quantity of alpha radiation emitted from polonium-210 had been detected in Mr Litvinenko's urine."
[+]
Science: UK Lab Traces Polonium To Russian Nuclear Plant 413 comments
reporter writes "British authorities had identified polonium 210 to be the radioactive poison that killed Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian spy who defected to Great Britain. Now, according to a disturbing report, the authorities have identified the source of the poison to be Russia. Bloomberg ominously reports, 'Scientists at the U.K.'s Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston, west of London, have traced the polonium 210 found in London to a nuclear power plant in Russia, the capital's Evening Standard newspaper reported today. Officials at the establishment didn't return calls.' A cold chill just fell on relations between Russia and the West." In another twist to this developing story, the shadowy Italian security consultant who dined with Litvinenko has also fallen ill with radiation poisoning.
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We should be defending the Plutonium killer (Score:4, Funny)
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You guys short of rainfall or what?
YRO? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:YRO? (Score:5, Funny)
But Britain is an industrialized society, so I don't think it's got anything to do with hay or hey as it's sometimes written.
Parent
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Even if you *did* have a license, it's only legal to kill Russians during Russki season, which is March-April.
Tracked by his radioactive trail (Score:5, Interesting)
The UK may have to hand over a scummy billionaire who profited immensely off of the rush to privatize Russia, which would be cool: two scumbags busted for the price of one.
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Re:Tracked by his radioactive trail (Score:5, Interesting)
At the same time, he has stood for the liberalization of the media and government structures, for which he was ordered exterminated by Litvinenko. In a tyrannical atmosphere that is Russia right now, that deserves a lot of credit.
Parent
Re:Tracked by his radioactive trail (Score:5, Informative)
He openly provided funds to Chechen terrorists. He openly declared his plans to violently overthrow Russian government. If both of these are legal, then I'm Santa Claus.
Parent
Re:Tracked by his radioactive trail (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
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Openly? Cite it. He seems to be particularly guilty of having a big mouth ("That includes taking power by force, which I am working on") but it's hard to imagine having any success in seizing Moscow with Chechen fighters.
Not that I think Boris is a champion of liberty -- he's probably even more of a crook than Putin and Yeltsin -- but his criticism of the Chechen war doesn't exactly make him Al Qaeda.
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http://www.forbes.com/forbes/1999/1101/6411090a.h t ml [forbes.com] (print version: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/1999/1101/6411090a_pr int.html [forbes.com] )
When pressed, Maskhadov names the man he sees as the prime villain in the affair: tycoon Boris Berezovsky. For the past several years Berezovsky has been channeling ransom payments to terrorists in Chechnya who have kidnapped visitors. Berezovsky boasts of his rescue efforts, but, says Maskhadov, the ransom money has dark consequences: It finances the Islamic militias, which are now attacking Russia.
In a recent interview with Le Figaro, Berezovsky admits to the payment. "I gave him this money ... to begin the reconstruction of the republic," he says, adding that his money does not go to support war against Russia.
And this is just the result of 5 minutes of Internet search. I'm sure you can find more such examples, that's why the Russian Office of Public Prosecutor still wants him.
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Second, there ARE Chechen terrorists, just come close to Chechnya (preferably, to mountainous region) and see it yourself.
Chechens fully deserve the beating, because during early 90-s they forced about 500000 Russians to move out of Chechnya (talk about displaced ordinary guys), including some of my distant relatives.
And how about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budyonnovsk_hostage_c risis [wikipedia.org] ?
Re:Tracked by his radioactive trail (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
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In fact, perhaps Microsoft could be persuaded to supply their government with "n" copies of Vista, in exchange for dropping the EEC fine. That way Russia will have the most hackab^H^H^H^H^H secure government computers in the world...
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The UK may have to hand over a scummy billionaire who profited immensely off of the rush to privatize Russia, which would be cool: two scumbags busted for the price of one.
Actually, the courts have already ruled that Boris Berezovsky cannot be returned to Russia, so even if there was the political will to return him, it seems unlikely that they could do anything about it.
Mod Parent Up (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Billionaire (Score:4, Informative)
In fact, this is the whole problem: to Russia, the concept of an independent judiciary is not credible.
Parent
Implications for British Power (Score:5, Interesting)
I think this is a real test case of whether the notion of the UK as a nation holds any actual power in the World. The Russian constitution, as I understand it, obliges the Russian government NOT to render Russian citizens for extradition, despite the fact that in Britain the defendent will assuredly recieve a fair trial (either in the UK or by analogy to the Lockerbie case, in a third country).
If the Russian government DID sponsor an assassination within British territory, it is an affront to our sovereignty and should be exposed. If on the other hand it was NOT, then it is equally desirable that the Russian government be cleared of that.
If the UK does not take a strong, principled stand on this issue, then I feel that our identity of "British" is very probably meaningless.
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ya right (Score:5, Insightful)
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He ASKED for this... (Score:5, Insightful)
1. Weapon doesn't decay.
2. Don't need to visit a nuclear reactor (which will have very restricted access on) to get one.
3. Doesn't leave a HUGE trail of everywhere you have been with it.
4. Less chance of target surving long enough to give full description of you.
This assasination was far too elaborate...
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Re:Uh, postage costs for radioactive items? (Score:5, Informative)
Just think - if you could buy as much polonium 210 as what was used against Litvinenko, do you really think that any postage service would want to deliver a radioactive package?
Actually, Polonium 210 is an alpha emitter, which means it's quite safe unless you ingest or inhale it (at which point even small amounts become deadly). Just putting it in a paper bag would shield you from much of the radiation. As long as it was securely packaged, I don't think it would be unsafe to mail.
Parent
Buy it embedded in anti-static devices (Score:3, Insightful)
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I think whoever did this is going for a kind of terroris
the medium is the message (Score:2, Interesting)
The method of this assassination was intended to create a specific kind of fear among people who pay attention to these sorts of things. Putin's transformation of Russia is nearly complete.
Actually, it was perfect assissination (Score:3, Insightful)
Why was it a perfect assassination? Because it involved radiation which inherently causes anyone to shiver, and it caused a slow, painful, agonizing death, which sends about as big of a message as publicly drawing and quartering the guy.
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It seems apparent that it was the assassin's intension to show that it was an assassination by a well connected person, and to get a lot of media attention. They also wanted him to die slowly and make his accusations.
It seems likely the assassination is associated with Putin, committed by either a supporter or an opponent. A supporter might make others more fearful of dissidence. It would also end his speaking out against the administration, but his assa
Can we fix the headline? (Score:5, Insightful)
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A better question (Score:4, Interesting)
Why poison the person multiple times when one time would be enough? We know it's multiple times because the police believe it to be multiple exposures. How would they know this unless the decay or signatures were different between exposures?
The amount is very puzzling. The amount is a huge amount of the material. It was so much that it left a blemish in the tea cup. Something on orders of 100 watts of heat from the Po-210.
I'm not big on conspiracy theories, but it seems to me there has to be much more to this story. What were these guys really up to?
Parent
Re:A better question (Score:5, Insightful)
And that's exactly why I believe this method was used.
No individual or even group would have been able to get that much polonium, without at least the tacit approval of a government with a sufficiently advanced nuclear program. The list of potential suppliers is very short.
This was a message, which is very clear to dissenters and critics: you can't hide. We can get to you, or at least those that are close to you, no matter where you are.
Parent
Re:A better question (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
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It's just politics and diplomacy (Score:4, Interesting)
Will Berezovsky be extradited? (Score:2, Informative)
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Fact of the matter is, Ru
Andrei's reply (Score:4, Funny)
Litvinenko's Book (Score:5, Interesting)
"Think. It ain't illegal yet." - George Clinton with Funkadelic
This whole thing reeks (Score:3, Interesting)
Sorry, I just don't buy it. I've read about the death of Litvinenko, and I've done a little homework into this guy's history that seems interesting. I'm not going to delve too deeply in the details, but it seems to me that it's quite probable that this whole thing was a publicity stunt.
Yeah, a guy's dead. But this guy has a history of being violently opposed to the current Russian administration. His history shows him trying a number of times to discredit and/or destroy the Putin-controlled government. He was involved with a number of groups with the same goal, particularly in London.
Now, honestly if you were a member of the Russian government who wanted rid of a thorny problem, how would you do it? Kill the guy with a bullet through the head, or use a traceable, unusual and likely highly public method of killing someone? It seems to me that the FSB would have been quite capable of putting a bullet in Litvinenko's brain pan at any time and suddenly this thorny problem goes away. Besides, it seems from my reading that Litvinenko was no more or less of a problem to the Russian government than most of his other brothers in his societies and groups in England. To say that Litvinenko was such a problem to the government that they'd want to kill him at all is I think inflating his importance.
Now, if you as a group wanted to make a statement that would have worldwide coverage regarding the inhumanity of Putin's government, how better to do it than to have one of your own lay down his/her life in a particularly odd and highly newsworthy fashion? And if you can show that your martyr has been moving around because his movements are particularly traceable then you've just scored extra bonus points.
Litvinenko's death was painful, slow and highly newsworthy. The BBC was all over it... I know. I live in the US but I still enjoy the BBC podcasts every day on my way to work... it was all over the BBC world service for weeks. It seems awfully convenient that a guy who has been extremely vocal in his opposition to Putin's government would meet an end that so amply demonstrates precisely the message he and his colleagues were trying to convey (if it's true, of course). The media coverage also somewhat reeked of an orchestrated media blitz, it was just too perfect.
Now, as for where they got the polonium-210... well, after the fall of the Soviet Union much of the nuclear material that had existed within the country's borders was probably sold off around the world in order to support the orphaned communities who suddenly had very few ways of supporting themselves. It's not such a stretch to think that a sufficiently organized group with enough funding could find a sufficient quantity of polonium-210 on the black market to take the life of one of their own in a massive political statement.
Now, I'm still a little on the fence on this one. I'd say 60% chance that the above is what happened, but I still maintain a 40% possibility that what the media told us about the FSB poisoning Litvinenko was true. Perhaps it was to make a statement to all of those colleagues of Litvinenko that they need to quiet down... but it seems to me that a handful of bullets and a few key members of the groups getting lynched would be cheaper, quicker, cleaner and send the same message effectively. The whole polonium poisoning thing just seems overkill for a government, but seems like a perfect way for a radical group to send a message. It's just a more sophisticated suicide bomber.
As I stated above, this is an opinion. Don't take it as gospel.
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Option #5 seems to be the most popular one. I k
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