Who killed Alexander Litvinenko?
Anyone know how to say "" in Russian?
President Vladimir Putin is appalled that anyone would point the finger at the Russian secret services -- even though they are famed throughout the world for their chemical creativity. One thing is sure: Mr Putin doesn't need the bad publicity internationally at the moment.
The evidence is skant and apparently not pointing in any particular direction at present. This shadowy operation dominates the front pages of today's UK newpapers, as befits a potential international incident; Russian media outlets, by contrast, have played the story down in their coverage.
Mr Litvinenko is a former KGB colonel. Mr Putin is a former head of the FSB (the successor organisation to the KGB). It is suggested in various reports that the two had a falling out in the late 90s - apparently Mr Litvinenko was unsatisfied with Mr Putin's efforts to deal with corruption in the FSB.
Needless to say, a former Russian security service operative will have made a lot of enemies during his career -- and after it. Perhaps it is significant that Mr Litvinenko's poisoning with the radioactive polonium 210 appears to have taken place on the day he acquired UK citizenship (having moved to London in 2000 seeking, and being granted, asylum). An assassin with a sense of irony?
We also know that Mr Litvinenko was investigating the murder of the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya. Did he get too close to the identity of that courageous reporter's killers?
Comments
I don't think many people in Russia actually care, whether it's through lack of reporting or just public opinion. The general consensus by some of the russians I know is that he was a traitor and yes, it's mostly likely the FSB are responsible. The Russian media won't broadcast anything scandalous either, as it's all state controlled.
I don't think it's fair to lump litvinenko together with politkovskaya. Although they were both against the russian government, politkovskaya's fearless work was concerned with human atrocities committed in chechnya and she had far more enemies than just those in Moscow.
Further to this is that not only is Russia corrupt at every level from the street policeman or a doctor to a duma bureaucrat, but it's the only way anything gets done. You need only live there for a few months to see this for yourself. It might not be fair, but it works.
There is a happy ending to all of this: the rest of the world has plenty of ammunition to splash over the front pages for the next month or so, rather than concentrating on more important matters.
It was the ghosts of the Cold War [Bush and Putin] who did it. What Russia has to do is open up its economy and join the EU.
"Whodunit" in Russian?
Surprised you have not had a flood of NI scholars of Russian trying this one.
The direct and boring translation is "dyetyektivnui roman / feelm", "detective novel / film". (Sorry, hotmail doesn't work in cyrillic.)
Maybe better is "taina ubuistva", meaning "murder mystery".
Anyone got anything better apart from the usual list of suspects?