Scotland Yard Has a New Suspect in Litvinenko Case
A former employee of the Russian embassy in London has been named as a suspect in the death of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko. Press accounts have also suggested that Litvinenko poisoned himself or that he died of cancer. His former colleague in the FSB points to Chechen rebels. Peter Clarke, head of the Scotland Yard's Anti-Terrorist Branch who is in charge of the investigation of Litvinenko's death, said that the case was being investigated as a suspicious death, not murder, and no suspects have been taken into custody. The police are seeking witnesses and inspecting places Litvinenko may have visited on November 1, the assumed date of his poisoning. It is known for certain that he was at the bar in the Millennium Mayflower Hotel and the Itsu sushi bar on that day. Traces of radioactive Polonium-210 have been found at both those sites, which have been closed down by police order.
The British government is appealing to person who were at the hotel bar or restaurant at the same time as Litvinenko to undergo medical testing. According to The Sunday Times, about 300 people have called the hotline set up for that purpose. Medical experts say that there is no cause for panic.
Those close to Litvinenko deny that he that he took poison intentionally or that he died of the effects of cancer treatment. Alex Goldfarb, a friend of Litvinenko and head of the International Foundation for Civil Liberties, dismissed the claims as “idiotic.” Businessman and former KGB officer Andrey Lugovoi, who met with Litvinenko at the bar of the Mayflower Millennium on November 1, said that Litvinenko was preparing to enter the business world.
Litvinenko himself told Kommersant two weeks ago, when he was already hospitalized, that he may have been poisoned by Russian agents and said that he knew the name of a former Russian consul in London who is in reality an intelligence agent and who was interested in him. Litvinenko spoke with The Times of London about the same topic shortly before his death and mentioned the name of Viktor Kirov, although he made no accusations against Kirov. Scotland Yard asked The Times for the recording of that interview, the newspaper said. Those close to Litvinenko doubt Kirov's involvement. “Sasha [Litvinenko] told me about a person who worked in the embassy and then conducted surveillance of him, Boris Berezovsky, Akhmed Zakaev and me,” Goldfarb told Kommersant, “but he went back to Russia three years ago , and I doubt that he can be connected with this.”
Litvinenko's former commander, former head of the seventh division of the FSB department for organized crime Lieut. Col. Alexander Gusak, shared his own theory about Litvinenko's death with Kommersant. He suggested that Litvinenko's death may be linked to events that took place in Dagestan in January 1996. Gusak said that, during the liquidation of Chechen militants who had captured the village of Pervomaiskoe, he asked Litvinenko to transport a wounded militant to a filtration point. “That evening, when I wanted to interrogate the Chechen, they told me that Litvinenko supposedly tortured him to death,” Gusak said, adding that the incident became “widely known.” “The Chechens have blood vengeance,” Gusak added. He thus sees a possibility that Chechen avengers obtained Polonium-210 from special services to assassinate Litvinenko. “Whose special services is another question,” he noted.
The British government COBRA committee on emergency situations met on Saturday to discuss Litvinenko's death. A representative of the British Foreign Office noted at the meeting that “many are forgetting that Litvinenko was a British citizen.” Litvinenko's death will also be discussed in the British parliament and the Conservative Party plans to initiate an investigation of how the radioactive Polonium-210 entered the country.
Alvina Kharchenko, London; Nikolay Sergeev
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 27, 2006
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