The story of Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian who recently died of apparent acute radiation poisoning in London, is fast becoming the most bizarre and compelling story in recent memory.  Litvinenko was an ex-patriot former KGB Colonel who was especially critical of the Putin regime. 

A website called Frontline contains a video of a meeting wherein Litvinenko flatly accuses Putin of being behind the murder of Anna Politkovskaya.  Politkovskaya was a journalist writing for Novaya Gazeta and was bitterly critical of Putin and his policies surrounding Chechnya. She was found murdered on October 7, 2006, in the elevator of her apartment complex in central Moscow.

Interestingly, according to a reference in Wikipedia, none other than Mikhail Gorbachev spoke out morning the loss of Politkovskaya-

Gorbachev told the Russian news agency Interfax about this assassination: “It is a savage crime against a professional and serious journalist and a courageous woman”, “It is a blow to the entire democratic, independent press. It is a grave crime against the country, against all of us.”

The whole thing is turning into one of those ponderous Russian sagas written deep in the snowy birch forests of eastern Russia. 

Already the radiological evidence is accumulating tying together the players in this startling tale of assassination.  Several BA jets have yielded clues as to the presence of radioactive materials on passengers. 

I’m guessing that the Brits will do a first class job sorting this one out.  Hopefully, the details will be made public.