CNN is reporting that radiation has been found on 2 British Airways jetliners in the investigation into the assassination of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.
LONDON, England (AP) — Authorities grounded three British Airways jetliners in London and Moscow on Wednesday and drew up plans to contact thousands of airplane passengers as they broadened their investigation into the radiation poisoning death of a former Russian spy.Two planes at London’s Heathrow Airport tested positive for traces of radiation, a third plane has been taken out of service in Moscow awaiting examination.
Would it surprise anyone that Russian President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB agent himself, might be a murderous thug? Litvinenko named Putin as responsible for his death. It’s not out of the realm of possiblity the way Putin tries to eliminate any political dissent.
Accusations of poisoning of political enemiesAccording to Russian military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer, “since Putin assumed power in Russia, poisoning has been one of the preferred political tools used by the Kremlin.”[9] At least two political opponents of Putin have been poisoned in recent years, Viktor Yushchenko, then candidate for the presidency of Ukraine, with dioxin, in September 2004, and Alexander Litvinenko, former KGB agent and vocal critic of Putin, with radioactive polonium-210, in November 2006. Yushchenko was extremely disfigured by the poisoning.
Litvinenko allegedly was in the payroll of Boris Berezovsky[10], an anti-Putin tycoon who lives in the United Kingdom and is on Interpol’s Wanted List. [11] [12] [13] John Henry, a toxicologist who examined Litvinenko before his death, said the type of polonium involved is “only found in government-controlled institutions.”[14] At the time of his death, Litvinenko was looking into the killing of Russian investigative journalist and Putin critic Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot to death in her apartment on October 7, 2006, Putin’s birthday, after an apparent previous attempt to poison her failed.[9] Putin denounced the manipulation of Litvinenko’s death as a “political provocation”.[15] He also promised to render every necessary support in investigation of the murder to the British police on behalf of Russian authorities, should such investigation take place.[16]
Possibly poisoned by polonium-210 in recent years were KGB defector Nikolay Khokhlov [4] and Russian journalist Yuri Shchekochikhin[5][6]. In these cases, tests for polonium-210 were not carried out, as it was “unheard of as a poison” before November 2006. The symptoms were consistent with polonium-210 poisoning, however.
Press Freedom and Intimidation
A number of Russian reporters who have spoken out against Putin’s administration have been mysteriously murdered. In 2006, Anna Politkovskaya (1958 – 2006) was the 13th journalist to be murdered. She ran a campaign exposing corruption in the Russian army and its reign in Chechnya. Since her assassination, the Committee to Protect Journalists has disclosed that Russia has become the third most dangerous place in the world to work as a journalistic reporter. (Only in Iraq and Algeria have more reporters been murdered.)
Technorati Tags Vladimir Putin, Alexander Litvinenko, assassination, Polonium 210
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