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From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 11/27/2006 6:01 AM
Spy sensation is old hat for tragic Russia
Former KGB agent's death fuels theories but little outrage
 
Matthew Fisher
National Post

Monday, November 27, 2006

CREDIT: Martin Hayhowa, AFP, Getty Images
Alexander Litvinenko, pictured in London in 2004, fell ill on Nov. 1 after a meeting in a sushi restaurant.

The West, especially the British media, has been buzzing over the poisoning death of Alexander Litvinenko, the former Soviet and Russian spy.

But there has been barely a murmur of concern in the country that has fallen under suspicion for his cruel death. Whether Russia or Russians had any part in his murder, few here have an opinion or care.

Not that the public knows much. The mostly state-controlled media were almost totally silent on the ugly affair until just before Mr. Litvinenko died, when they vehemently rejected innuendo concerning Russia's involvement. The official position has been to stonewall or to dismiss as risible the accusation the Kremlin had any part in his murder --as Mr. Litvinenko himself alleged in a deathbed accusation levelled directly at "Mr. Putin."

Nevertheless, there has been a peculiar conversation in a limited political circle in Russia since Vladimir Putin suddenly came to public notice then power in 2000 after a series of massive apartment bombings killed 300 people in their sleep in Moscow and elsewhere. It was on this wave of fear and terror the former secret agent was appointed Prime Minister by President Boris Yeltsin in August, 1999, became acting president in January, 2000, and was elected President three months later.

Trading on public anxiety, Mr. Putin launched the second Chechen war, promising a return to order and stability. It was -- and is -- a stance that has made him spectacularly popular with his countrymen.

Nevertheless, from the moment the bombings happened there have been whisperings they might have somehow been connected with state security agencies.

The thinking has been that the KGB's successor, the FSB, staged these acts of violence to manipulate public opinion. This theory has been fuelled by the curious fact local police caught a group of FSB agents red-handed as they planted a bomb in an apartment in Ryazan, central Russia.

The bombings were followed by a string of murders and attempted murders of Kremlin opponents.

Omar ibn Khattab, a Saudi Islamic radical who had joined the Chechen jihad against Moscow, died in mysterious circumstances in 2002 after receiving a letter that allegedly poisoned him when he opened it. Two years later, a car bomb in the Persian Gulf sheikdom of Qatar killed Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, the former separatist president of Chechnya. Two Russian agents were convicted of that crime by a Qatari court, then deported.

That same year the face of Viktor Yushchenko, a Ukrainian presidential candidate known for his strongly anti-Russian views, was badly scarred by dioxin poisoning. After almost dying, Mr. Yushchenko rallied and won the election.

Two months ago Anna Politovskaya, an investigative journalist harshly critical of the war in Chechnya, was shot and killed in the elevator of her Moscow apartment. After she died, Mr. Putin remarked she had had little influence in Russia. But the furor in the West over her death caused Russia more harm than had any of her articles.

Mr. Litvinenko was undoubtedly killed because of who he was. But who killed him? Unlike the narrowly focused Ms. Politovskaya, whose murder he claimed to be investigating, he operated in the toxic atmosphere of Russian emigre circles where it is impossible to be sure of anything.

The fact Mr. Litvinenko was a paid ally of Boris Berezovsky, an exiled Russian billionaire whose immense fortune is of dubious provenance and whose hatred of Mr. Putin is well known, suggests dark theories that have nothing to do with the Kremlin.

Mr. Berezovsky is an odious intriguer and many people associated with him have met hard ends. He stands to benefit from any speculation the Kremlin orchestrated Mr. Litvinenko's unusual death.

Another complication for those who suspect the Kremlin was that before defecting six years ago, one of Mr. Litvinenko's jobs with the FSB was to pursue the Russian Mafia.

This amorphous gang of criminals has long memories, international reach and no compunction about murder.

In every one of the murky cases cited above, nothing can be proved.

Each incident was idiosyncratic. The evidence is, at best, circumstantial. However, there have been too many queer deaths not to raise questions.

If Mr. Litvinenko had been killed in Canada, the threshold for believing there had been state involvement would be much higher. Given Russia's tragic history since the time of the czars, it requires less effort to imagine such a severe reckoning.
© National Post 2006
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=674810b3-7849-41ab-99ee-82396cbb4e65


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