I've been having some trouble taking the whole poisoned spy thing seriously - I think it's because we went to see Casino Royale the day before the story broke so I was having a bit of a fiction/reality overlap.
Anyway, I'm getting more into it now that theories about what went on are starting to develop. Any thoughts on this? None of them seem very likely to me.
KGB: Why on earth would they? And if they would, why with such a weird poison? Surely easier just to get someone to shove him under a tube in the rush hour.
Self-inflicted: Really??? Again, why with such a weird poison?
Bumped off by his own team to frame the KGB: Same point about method applies...
Comments
You get people with Spies on the brain, you watch that box office never slow down
That leads you to two sources: KGB-successor groups like the FSB or the Chechen mafia.
Putin has links to the former and Berezovsky (Litvinenko's sponsor/friend & Putin's enemy) has links to the Chechen mafia. The most extreme allegation is that BB runs the Chechen mafia, the least is that they tried to extort money from him and he cut a deal.
Chechnya is at the heart of this, because Litvinenko (and the other recently murdered journalist) were both working on an expose around two big terrorist bombs in Moscow. At the time, these were blamed on the Chechens and led to a series of authoritarian laws and the subsequent Russian invasion of Chechnya. The allegation was that these bombs were actually planted by the KGB/FSB in order to give Putin a mandate for invasion. He wanted that mandate because the Chechen mafia were running rampant and using Chechnya as a home base.
Also, a law was recently passed giving Putin executive authority to kill people abroad.
So it's very murky. It's easier not to think in terms of good guys and bad guys.
From who to whom, I can't say.
On another tack, I bet you're glad you're not the manager at Itsu.
<img src="http://www.b3tards.com/u/739915991edcd1736685/sushi.gif">