It’s curiouser and curiouser….or is it?
British intelligence sources increasingly suspect that Alexander Litvinenko, the former spy killed with a radioactive poison, was the victim of a plot involving “rogue elements” within the Russian state, the Guardian has learned.
While ruling out any official involvement by Vladimir Putin’s government, investigators believe that only those with access to state nuclear laboratories could have mounted such a sophisticated plot.
Police were last night closing in on a group of men who entered the UK among a large crowd of Muscovite football fans. The group of five or more arrived shortly before Mr Litvinenko fell ill and attended the CSK Moscow match against Arsenal at the Emirates stadium on November 1. They flew back shortly afterwards. While describing them only as witnesses, police believe their presence could hold the key to the former spy’s death.
And there was coincidence: another Putin opponent got sick.
Last night, the Irish government said it was launching a separate investigation focusing on the former Russian prime minister Yegor Gaidar, who fell ill during a visit to Ireland a week ago. At first Mr Gaidar’s entourage thought he was suffering from something he had eaten. But yesterday one of his aides said doctors suspected he had been poisoned.
The Gardaà said it would question everyone Mr Gaidar had been in contact with, but there was no immediate link to the Litvinenko case.
There are, however, two ways to look at both these cases. Without even knowing the details, you could say (a) there is no immediate link to Putin and his government or, (b) they bring to mind the phrase “plausible deniability.”
Time will tell which one it is in one or both cases. But, then again, perhaps the full truth will never be known. Unless another Putin opponent suddenly gets sick.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.