David Hearst July 18, 2007 3pm The saga of the poisoned spy
When Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned, his employer and associate, the exiled Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky, wondered privately why they had not tried to kill him instead. He had the money, the influence and soon after Litvinenko's death, called openly for a coup in Russia. Today Mr Berezovsky revealed there was an attempt on his life and that Scotland Yard had told him to leave the country three weeks ago. This would be the second such assassination attempt on the billionaire since he settled in London.
The longer the saga of the poisoned spy goes on, the more you have to ask yourself what is the most likely thing to have happened. There are many conspiracy theories. One current in Russia is that this is all a set up, designed to besmirch the name of Russia, combat its growing economic assertiveness and set the stage for missiles to be placed in Poland on Russia's border.
There are theories but there is also forensic evidence, or least a strong case to answer before a British court. Polonium 210 leaves a very specific forensic trail, so once radiologists knew what they were looking for they could trace it back to the person who allegedly handled it and transported it. That trail led to Germany and involved German investigators as well. Now, either British and German detectives are involved in an elaborate conspiracy to defame Russia, at a time when major British and German companies are bidding for lucrative Russia energy contracts (and also at a time when both Britain and Germany are trying to secure Russia's agreement on a United Nations plan for Kosovo) or the answer to this mystery lies closer to home in Russia.
Litvinenko was regarded as a traitor by his former colleagues of the Federal Security Service (FSB). He had published one book alleging FSB involvement in the apartment bombings that led to the second Chechen war, and there was every reason to believe he would not have stopped there. You do not have to agree with the role that Litvinenko would have given himself as a Russian dissident, to also accept that he continued to be serious irritant to the organisation he once worked for.
The most obvious explanation for his killing is that it sends a warning signal to all Russians who are intending to use London, Berlin or any other west European capital as a base for stirring domestic opposition to the Kremlin. The killing of Anna Politkovskaya, Russia's most outspoken campaigning journalist on Chechnya, sent a shockwave through what is left of the independent media in Moscow. Politkovskaya had fled the country once before, in the knowledge that she was in mortal danger. But it was only when she was shot in the back in the entrance to her block of flats, that the rules of the game changed for journalists in Russia. And it has had its effect. The killing of Litvinenko has had a similar effect for some Russians living in London.
The options for a British foreign secretary, let alone one that has just arrived in the job, are limited. Ignore it, and he leaves himself open to the accusation that he is soft on a major foreign crime committed on the streets of London, which endangered many innocents in its commission. Act on it, and he is accused of jeopardising a relationship that Britain needs, and many Russian companies need too.
There are no quick fixes to this crisis. In the long run, the volume of trade and travel between the two countries will demand that each country recognises each other's judicial systems, so an extradition agreement has to be hammered out. In the long run too, the lack of such a mechanism will work against both countries' commercial interests. In the short term though, the volume of mutual recrimination is bound to increase. The next dispute will come over the status of Kosovo, and after that the first opposition demonstration that is run off the streets of Moscow during an election campaign, will receive intense media scrutiny all over Europe.
The killing of a Russian in London happened not because Britain was an alien and hostile environment for former operatives of the FSB to operate in, but because it felt, a little too much, like home from home.
****************************************************************************************Adam27bansGhaznavi's response:
In Aug 2nd 1993, the siege of the Russian parliament began, when said parliament refused to rubber stamp Yeltsin (& his cabal's) plan to privitise/ hand over the wealth of Russia at a knockdown price to the bunch of compradorist criminals & foreign interests that were supporting him.
At the time, despite his fascist manoueverings, Yeltsin enjoyed some political legitimacy as a `democrat' & the mainly Communist parliament was viewed with some suspicion. THIS gave Yeltsin the psycho political initiative, as it was a critical drag factor in people turning out to support parliament.
Consequantly when Yeltsin lifted the police cordon BEFORE parliament had gathered forces sufficient to overwhelm/ overstretch those forces loyal to Yeltsin, instead of sitting on the rear, patiently gathering their forces/ winning over the army/ mobilising the miners; Parliaments' defenders recklessly took the insurrectoinary intiative & fell headlong into the trap prepared for them.
Parliament was then shelled (interestingly, the Tambov tank regiment used for the task was considered not sufficiently reliable & only provided with shells when it reached its destination); murdering hundreds of MPs. The western political elites (all main UK party leaderships) cheered this `victory for democracy & the rule of law'.
The constitution drawn up subsequantly, can best be summarised by Yeltsin's own words; `the counterweight to me is my conscience'.
This paved the way for the privitisation of Russia, its rape by foreign energy corporations. Russia barely existed as a state entity. It was held together only by inertia. Eg the workers were shattered by the combo of political defeat followed by what can only described as economic genocide as the birth rate collapsed along with life expectancy. The army was sent to be degraded in Chechnya. So that it would be discredited as a powerbase from which the compradors might be deposed.
What was the result of this golden age of Russian democracy?
A veritable civil war between the resource boyars. Who only came together when the spectre of General Alexander Lebed (the hero of Trans Dniestr, who ended the first Chechen war) emerged . Then they (with the pickled Yeltsin) angled for someone they could use as a puppet to preserve their plunder.
They alighted on Putin. The second Chechen war began after a series of apartment bombings Lebed suspectd the FSB of involvement in. But atrocity as this was, let us understand Putin's position.
The USSR could not be restored in any form. The Russian soul would not believe in its viability. Not after 1993, not while the USA petrodollar imperium still ruled supreme. & Putin's dream of a `normal' Russian capitalism, was not viable either. Not just because such would be drowned out by Chinese manufactures, with its limitless supply of cheap labor, but because it would be impossible to take on BOTH the oligarchs & yet prevent Russian workers (as would need be to prevent Russia as an entity collapsing altogether) moving to the more clement regions. This would leave him as a sunset Alexander II, doomed to unavoidable assassination.
So he took the line of least resistance. He broke/ expropriated the comprador oligarchs/ foreign corps & created his own barons. `Meet the new boss, same as the old boss'?
Not quite.
For by so doing (& combining this with the old Soviet & Tsarist ideology) he not only ended the boyar civil wars, he staved off an utter catastrophe & preserved Russia as a viable entity by refocussing it on a practical geo strategic radical approach. Combining assymetric military policy, aimed at exploiting the weaknesses of big platforms of expansionist neo cons encircling Russia (& anxious to restore control over Russian oil & gas) & more. He built a global resource confederacy against the neo cons seeking `Full Spectrum Dominance'. & Insisted not on worthless $$$, but demanding payment in Roubles.
And now Berezovsky seeks openly to plot a violent coup with the the neo cons (encircling Russia with bases from Central Asia to E. Europe) & the dispossessed UK/ USA petro interests (not forgetting the petrodollar), to restore the resource boyars to their playground (I shall deal later with what will be neccessary to hold Russia together POST petrodollar crash).
It is a testament to Yeltsin & Berezovsky's past role, that Resource Tsarism (with its limited democratic trappings) can actually be said to represent real progress in Russia.
& it is interesting to hear Berezovsky speak of how with financial backing of say a hundred thousand ideologues happy to accept his money, it is possible to depose the govt of Russia, because the people are too weak to resist.
But he forgot however to mention it was 1993 & his role in the economic genocide of Russia that so reduced them.
Putin is the right man in the right place to fight these hyperfascist scum.
As for Berezovsky, get rid of this gangster.
Much More info on the Kosovo Q and The Controlled Demolition of the Petrodollar Imperium from: RebellionoftheDamned2009