Feb 05 2007
Berezvosky Is Getting Nervous
Berezovsky has ramped up his PR effort to try and hold onto the idea Alexander Litvinenko was the target of a Kremlin political hit and not some victim of a nuclear material smuggling effort (my theory). Berezovsky got Marina Litvinenko (wife of the deceased) to pen a letter to Putin demanding he prove a negative – his innocence. The fact this letter was hoisted to the press by Berezovsky’s NY based mouthpiece tells the truth behind the act – the media facade must be slipping.
Litvinenko’s widow, Marina, has sent a letter to Putin suggesting that Russia is not providing British authorities with full cooperation.
In the letter, dated Jan. 31 and provided to The Associated Press by Berezovsky associate Alex Goldfarb, Marina Litvinenko told Putin that “if you do not make every effort to help the British authorities in the search for those guilty of this terrible crime, I can only suppose that you have something to hide.”
This media stunt comes as Russian investigators seemed poised to come to London and have some probing discussions with Berezovsky (whose office was found to have a lot of unexplained Po-210 contamination). Is there reason for Berezovsky to fear some law enforcement attention? Well it seems :
Boris Berezovsky told Newsnight that, on his deathbed, Mr Litvinenko, 43, had said former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi was responsible for his poisoning.
Mr Berezovsky said Mr Litvinenko, whose body contained radioactive polonium-210, had told him: “I think Lugovoi is involved in my poison.”
Last week, police sources said Mr Lugovoi was the “most likely poisoner”.
We have known Berezovsky and his allies have been pointing the finger at Lugovoi since before Litvinenko died. But never once did they name him. It always seemed to be some coded warning. Why? Why not just come out and name Lugovoi – Berezovsky’s previous employee? My guess is because Lugovoi is vacationing right now, acting more like a witness under a plea agreement than a suspect:
When reached by RIA Novosti over the phone, Lugovoi declined to comment on the Litvinenko case, citing his recent interviews to the Western media.
“Please don’t misunderstand me, I don’t want to think about anything else now that I’m on vacation and skiing in the mountains,” Lugovoi said, declining to give details of his whereabouts.
He only said he was in Europe, and his vacation would last for another week.
…
“I am still a witness, and there has been no official statement that I have become a suspect,” Lugovoi stressed.
Lugovoi said he had his own theories and suspicions about the case, but he could not discuss them because he had pledged under Russian legislation not to divulge any details of the investigation.
Lugovoi is being silent to the media and Berezvosky runs to them constantly with new unsubstantiated twists. I had to pick which one appeared to be showing some signs of guilty panic it would be Berezovsky with his ramped up PR machine spewing, not the relaxing Lugovoi.
Interestingly enough, Berezovsky sounds like he still has a lot to tell authorities (from the previous link):
Mr Berezovsky who, like Mr Litvinenko, is a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said he would be happy to talk to British and Russian authorities.
“Scotland Yard must question me about my knowledge of Alexander,” he said.
“But Scotland Yard has never asked me to answer to the Russian prosecutor office.
“And moreover, me personally, I initiated this idea for Scotland Yard people and told them I am absolutely open to meet people from Russia if it helps to investigate Alexander’s case.”
“Must” question him? Why not “have” questioned him? Poor english skills? We shall see. But the three Russians who met Litvinenko went skiing in the Caucuses while Berezovsky was at home trying to turn the media. He is not showing the calm of someone above suspicion.
hi aj;
thanks for posting this amusing guesswork.
here are REAL facts:
1 – litvinenko worked for berezovsky.
2 -berezovsky is an enemy of putin.
3 – the polonium came from russia.
4 – lugovoy came from and RETURNED to russia.
5 – the victim – who was there when he was poisoned (OBVIOUSLY)
suspected lugovoy.
6 – scotland yard suspects lugovy.
7 – lugovoy is being protected by berezovsky’s enemy.
LIKELY SCENARIO (and it passes occam’s razor, unlike yours):
lugovy (and probably kovtun) were double agents actually working for putin.
the polonium would not COST putin a penny, so claiming that the cost of the polonium makes assassination unlikely is preposterous.
FACT: putin has had other enemies assassinated, and incarcerated many more. he is not shy about playing hardball. HECK: he is even arming syria and iran and helping iran’s nuke program. he is one tuffsunovabeach. he is not above assassinating litvinenko.
he would NOT need to give lugovoy any deal to get at others in a smuggliung ring. in fact i think it absurd to suggest that anyone could get polonium put of russia without fsb/kgb knowing about it. it’s a freakin police state!
and berezovsky would pay for a chechen bomb to be assembled in the Uk for detoination in the UK or russia. not when he could build it in russia or chechnya or germany or somewhere else on the continent.
why you trust putin more than berezovsky is truly puzzling. if not bizarre.
all the best?
truly: you have GREAT blog here; i just think you’ve gone way out on a limb on this and are too proud/stubborn to walk it back.
Livinenko DID NAME Lugovoi as his killer on Chechenpress in Russian on Nov.16.
Why don’t the Russians allow British investigators to interrogate Putin? After all, Litvinenko named Putin as his murderer. The interrogation of Putin is absolutely required in such a case. And also the Russians didn’t allow the Brits to interrogate the FSB deputy chief Kolmogorov who was also named by Litvinenko.
The 3 Russians went most probably nowhere from Moscow. Their faces are known everywhere. There is some heresay that Putin ordered Lugovoi and Kovtun to be murdered long ago because they knew too much and now the Russians demonstrate their doubles.
Some Russian newspapers say by the way that the 3 doubles are skying in Europe, right, but in Russian-occupied North Caucasus that geographically belongs to Europe.
How many turkeys did they just kill in England because of Avian Flu?
You think the audience in England is in the mood for what old russian hands are up to? Worse, still, when you add the kind of money at Berezovsky’s disposal.
On the other hand, for a smuggling operation, there are too many people! You don’t need 100 carriers. Unless some aren’t carrying Po-210. But they’re a veritable Wal-Mart’s supplier of parts?
I still think until it is known the day by day chart of Litvinenko’s care IN THE HOSPITAL you have no idea what anyone treating him knew. Or what the staff did to abate all the vomiting. And, other symtoms.
Also, how did the thalium get “in?” Was he being treated by his russian “frends?”
And, given how moscow has human intelligence, it can throw onto a case, quickly. Were there orderlies, or nurses, or social workers, coming by; not so much to “treat the patient?” But to get word back to their handlers? Spies have handlers.
As to the “death bed” scene, Woodward already worked this angle with Wm. Casey (the head of CIA fame.) No one believed it. It met with ridicule. By the time Litvinenko was at death’s door, I’d bet he was in no condition to talk. And, if his doctors were very kind, they even let him slip into a coma. To limit the distress.
You just don’t know what the chart says. You don’t even know what test results were in those charts. Or what the nurses were delivering, on orders, in terms of medication.
Penning letters to putin. What a waste of time for the public to know this. As to private correspondence? The lady could write to anyone she wants.
Is this PR ploy set up so that putin responds? You’re kidding me, RIIGHT?
I heart AJ but agree with Reliapundit.
If Litvinenko did not even know he was poisoned for several days how would he know who did it? He named Putin because Putin was enemy #1. However , he was guessing. If he was murdered he couldn’t have known who did it.
i heart aj too!
You also don’t know the condition Litvinenko was in, when he supposedly made his “accusations.”
You haven’t read the intake notes, either, from the emergency room.
But he started vomiting after eating raw fish. A few hours later. And, like most normal people would have thought it came from the restaurant food.
Scaramella’s name came out, when Litvinenko grew suspicious. He was being told by doctors, I’d guess, that he was way too sick for this to be food poisoning. And, then all his hair fell out. Doctors probably told him they suspected advanced cancer.
Yes, there’s a hot trail of Po-210 from Moscow, to Hamberg. To London. And, one of the planes remained hot enough that it was taken out of commission. And, 36,000 passengers were tested. That’s a lot of people. But not enough to reach the radar screen, where you’d know who tested high positive. And, who did not.
The other piece to this puzzle? Did the radioactive materials’ container, or containers, leak on purpose? Due to faulty handling? (Perhaps someone not screwing a cap on tight?) Or was there “mischief.” Where along the line, someone OUTSIDE of the smuggling circle, “wanted to put competitors out of business?”
Yeah. Putin’s a bad guy. Sticking a 100,000 loss of life into London, where you kill off people who begin to fear an epidemic? What a wild idea to make the socialist government of England COLLAPSE.
Winston Churchill already said so. He was in America in october 1929. And, he wrote a column. He said then that greedy people could push markets to balloon. But America had in place the CLEAN UP apparatus. Individuals failed. Not the country! And, then he added, in parliamentary systems, when so many go bankrupt, the government would face a “loss of confidence.” There would be new elections. And, there would be termoil. Sure. You could draw up plans like that and Putin would bite.
But here? The stuff is GOING INTO LONDON. That makes the feasibility “study” of a terrible wave of death; where people go home to get sick. And, die like Litvinenko did, an absolute disaster.
So Putin kills Litvinenko. Letting all this “planned previously” stuff go awry? Why? He wants to work with another group of smugglers?
He wants to “save” England? NO CHANCE!
But the PR guy is painting Putin as the bad person. And, not Berezovsky. The russian with the billions. And, friends of his are part of a 100-ring circle of smugglers.
Something doesn’t compute. One dead. Massive killings through release of radioactive “merchandise” is not deployed.
You want my fantasy? The Mossad interferred. And, I’m an American kid. And, I didn’t pick our CIA. On the other hand? I could be wrong.
Ya know what doesn’t make sense?
It putin was part of a plot to bring lots of radioactive material into London, why would he go and stop the “operation” in its tracks? It’s not much of a “kill” if you just get one guy.
On the other hand? One of the planes the russians flew in was so hot, I think it is still out of service. And, there were 36,000 people who received calls to “check with doctors.”
When stories aren’t clear cut, sometimes you have to puzzle things out. I never did understand, for instance, why the Imam didn’t let the casket into the mosque. The imam heard what kind of chatter? Or did radiation poisoning “take” some of his flock?
A very big kill ratio, where people exposed were at home when the symptoms finally showed, would be a much harder “crime” to track, than say a suicide bomber exploding on top of a bus.
Where would putin get a benefit stopping a “big crime” like getting London down on its knees? Watching real hysteria and panic break loose. And, he decided, what the heck? Go for broke. Kill Litvinenko. Putin IS a bad man! I’d bet half of London is aware of the threats they are facing now from terrorists. I’d call the Mossad, before I’d call putin, to come up with a “cure.”
Yeah. People have their hearts and brains in the right place. But why a small murder, when you could have BIG ONES?
All the testimony is third hand, contradictory and unverifiable.
According to the various mouthpieces, Litvinenko named at least four people on his deathbed at different times: Scaramella, Kirov – the former Embassy man – Lugovoi, Vladislav the ‘mystery Russian’ . . . and then there was General Igor and Putin too.
Litvinenko’s own testimony – as shown in his dealings with Scaramella – is hardly reliable in any case.
Speaking of media stunts, it is Litvinenko who starts the whole PR ball rolling after checking into a hospital under a false name. He also declares he knows he is poisoned before any doctor can confirm. That is all highly suspicious.
Remember, Litvinenko was allegedly paid one and a half million by Berezovsky for the stunt on Russian TV where he made accusations against the FSB . . .