bloody mir Putin is a bad man!

[harimau]

Long road to the truth for Litvinenko family
By Gordon Corera
Security correspondent, BBC News
5 hours ago
From the section UK
Alexander LitvinenkoImage copyrightLitvinenko Family
Image caption
A young Alexander Litvinenko in military uniform
The image of Alexander Litvinenko defiant but dying from radioactive poisoning in a London hospital bed is how the world remembers the former Russian intelligence officer.
But that is not the way his widow, Marina, and son, Anatoly, 21, want to remember him.
The photos they spread across a kitchen table tell the story of Litvinenko's life, not his death.
There is a picture of him aged 17 in military uniform. He became part of the security apparatus - what was the KGB and, after the end of the Soviet Union, the FSB.
Another picture shows him sitting astride a tank - a man who fought for his country.

What we know about the Litvinenko case
Alexander Litvinenko: Profile of murdered Russian spy
A deadly trail of polonium
But there is also an image from a press conference in which he spoke out about corruption in the FSB.
He went to see the FSB's newly appointed director to complain, hoping he would act. But, instead, Litvinenko was cast out. The director's name was Vladimir Putin.
Alexander Litvinenko and sonImage copyrightLitvinenko Family
Image caption
Litvinenko and son, Anatoly
Alongside the pictures of his work, are those of his personal life - holding his newborn son, teaching Anatoly to swim on his back, and playing with him on a sofa. Anatoly looks away from these.
"I try not to think too much about my early childhood," he says. "It is easier that way."
Soon after speaking out over corruption, Litvinenko made the decision to flee Russia for his and his family's safety.
He arrived in London and eventually became a British citizen, in 2006.
Within weeks of that event, he would be poisoned.
The journey to the current inquiry has been tortuous.
An inquest began but then hit a brick wall when the government said much of the information it held was classified and could not be revealed in public.
The only solution, Sir Robert Owen, a judge sitting as coroner responded, was a public inquiry.
The government resisted that option, but Marina Litvinenko continued to fight through the courts.
Alexander Litvinenko (R) and friendImage copyrightLitvinenko Family
Image caption
Litvinenko (R) fought for his country
Eventually, the Home Office relented, a decision many saw as the result of a downturn in relations with Russia.
Anatoly had little understanding of his father's work when he was a child, and it was only the inquiry that helped him understand the extent to which Litvinenko had remained involved in the world of security and intelligence.
This included working for Britain's Secret Intelligence Service MI6.
The inquiry revealed how Litvinenko was receiving regular payments for consultancy work and had a case officer (known as Martin) he met regularly.
The details of the poisoning itself have long been known, although fresh information did emerge, which linked Andrei Lugovoi and Dimitri Kovtun to multiple attempts to kill Litvinenko.
Alexander Litvinenko and son posing with British policemenImage copyrightLitvinenko Family
Image caption
Anatoly and Alexander Litvinenko posing in a London park
Those two men have denied any role and Russia says it cannot extradite them to face charges.
And the crucial issue in the report is that of state responsibility.
"You want to find out who was behind the murder, who planned it, who commissioned it," Anatoly says.
"That is why state responsibility is important to us."
Most observers expect some kind of finding of state responsibility, but whether there is enough evidence to name individuals - including up to the Russian leader himself - is unclear.
One thing that did emerge, though, was a personal animosity between Mr Putin and Litvinenko.
"They disliked each other immensely, because Litvinenko complained about corruption… and Putin shelved his report," says Litvinenko's friend Alex Goldfarb.
"And Putin considered Litvinenko, after the fact, a traitor for going public with his allegations."
Why targeted?
The specific trigger for the killing has also been the subject of speculation.
Litvinenko had been vociferous and outspoken in his accusations about the Kremlin from London - co-writing a book accusing the Russian security services of bombing Moscow apartments to justify a war in Chechnya.
But it may well have been his work investigating specific individuals in the Kremlin and their ties to the mafia that warranted his killing.
Alexander LitvinenkoImage copyrightGetty Images
Image caption
Alexander Litvinenko died in hospital in London in November 2006
He had already helped Spanish prosecutors arrest a number of individuals and was due to travel out to give further evidence when he was poisoned.
One of the people he had told about that work (and was due to travel to Spain with) was Andrei Lugovoi.
The issue of state responsibility has ramifications beyond the Litvinenko case.
An inquest is due to start in Surrey in the coming months into the death of Alexander Perepilichnyy.
He had come to Britain with information of corruption inside the Russian state.
Andrei Lugovoi, 2013Image copyrightGetty Images
Image caption
Andrei Lugovoi was one of the men who met Litvinenko
It is not yet clear whether he was murdered, but Bill Browder, whose own lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was killed in Russia, believes he was.
"Anything that potentially exposes money that the government crime figures are collecting puts the person who exposes that money at a risk of being killed," Mr Browder says.
He says not enough has been done in the wake of the Litvinenko killing.
"If the Russian government sends assassins to the United Kingdom to kill people and there are no consequences, it basically givens them a green light to keep on killing people," he says.
Mr Browder says the UK and EU should "at a minimum" impose individual sanctions such as asset freezes and travel bans on people in the Russian government shown to have any responsibility for the Litvinenko killing.
Marina LitvinenkoImage copyrightGetty Images
Image caption
Marina Litvinenko fought long and hard for a public inquiry into her husband's death
British diplomats involved in the Litvinenko case accept the measures taken at the time may not have been strong enough to deter Russia (these included the expulsion of diplomats and the suspension of intelligence cooperation, which was of relatively small importance anyway).
But the signs are the British state may not be keen at this moment to further escalate tensions with Russia, particularly because of Moscow's role in the Middle East and the Syria crisis.
The Litvinenko case
23 Nov 2006 - Litvinenko dies three weeks after having tea with former agents Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun in London
24 Nov 2006 - His death is attributed to polonium-210
22 May 2007 - Britain's director of public prosecutions decides Mr Lugovoi should be charged with the murder of Litvinenko
31 May 2007 - Mr Lugovoi denies any involvement in his death but says Litvinenko was a British spy
5 Jul 2007 - Russia officially refuses to extradite Mr Lugovoi, saying its constitution does not allow it
May-June 2013 - The inquest into Litvinenko's death is delayed as the coroner decides a public inquiry, which could hear some evidence in secret, would be preferable
July 2013 - Ministers rule out a public inquiry
Jan 2014 - Marina Litvinenko appears in the High Court to fight for a public inquiry
11 Feb 2014 - The High Court says the Home Office had been wrong to rule out an inquiry before the outcome of an inquest
July 2014 - A public inquiry is announced by Home Office
January 2015 - The public inquiry begins
Marina and Anatoly Litvinenko are aware the political context around the inquiry has changed and may shape the response.
They also recognise the report may be a milestone but might not not end their struggle.
"It is important, but it is not necessarily the end," says Marina.
And Anatoly says: "I feel a sense of duty.
"My father did a hell of a lot to get me to this country to make sure I was safe.
"I need to respect that and do whatever I can to honour his memory."
"Finding the truth is the closest we can get to justice for my father"

Litvinenko inquiry: What we know about the case
31 July 2015
Litvinenko: A deadly trail of polonium
28 July 2015
Alexander Litvinenko: Profile of murdered Russian spy
26 July 2015
Alexander Litvinenko: The journey to a public inquiry
26 January 2015
The lessons from Russia's latest killing
4 March 2015
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[harimau]

Polonium is back in the news as Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's wife says Swiss forensic tests show he was poisoned to death by it in 2004. Here are five things to know about the radioactive substance sometimes called the "Perfect Poison."

What Is Polonium?

Polonium is a metal found in uranium ore whose isotope polonium-210 is highly radioactive, emitting tiny positively charged alpha particles. So long as polonium is kept out of the human body, it poses little danger because the alpha particles travel no more than a few centimeters and cannot pass through skin. But if polonium is ingested, even in the tiniest quantity, it will so badly damage internal organs that they shut down and death is certain.

A speck of polonium the size of the dot at the end of this sentence contains about 3,400 times the lethal dose for humans. It was discovered by French scientist Marie Curie at the end of the 19th century and named after her native country, Poland (Polonia in Latin).

Why Is It Called The Perfect Poison?

Oleg Gordievsky, a former officer with Russia's KGB who was a double agent for Britain during the Cold War, says polonium is an ideal assassination weapon because it is absolutely lethal: "Polonium is a perfect poison. It kills absolutely, without hesitation. And if you use it, you use it with 100 percent certainty."

But polonium is not just an immensely powerful poison. Its presence in the body is also very hard for doctors to identify unless they are looking specifically for it.

Part of the difficulty in detecting polonium poisoning is that its outward symptoms resemble poisoning with much less powerful substances. Among the earliest symptoms are hair loss, which is also a standard symptom of poisoning by thallium, an element in rat poison.

This ability of polonium to conceal its presence by appearing to be another, simpler, poison enables it to fool investigators into looking for other culprits than the real assassin.

There is one more reason to consider polonium the perfect poison: it is easy to conceal and transport across borders.

Unlike most common radiation sources, polonium-210 does not set off standard radiation detectors because it emits only alpha particles that do not penetrate even a sheet of paper.

It can be carried in crystalized or powdered form or diluted in a bottle of liquid. Identifying it in any of these forms with current methods is both time-consuming and requires an experienced analyst.

Has It Been Used Before?

Yes. The most famous case is the assassination of Aleksandr Litvinenko, a former Russian security officer who received political asylum in Britain after becoming a highly vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He died of polonium poisoning in November 2006.

British prosecutors say he drank polonium-laced tea while meeting in a hotel room with several Russians three weeks before his death. The tiny amount of polonium needed to kill him would have given no taste or color to his drink to alert him of its presence.

"It was very easy for [the assassins], because they went to the little kitchen in [the hotel room], put the poison into the teapot, poured the hot water [on the tea] and gave it to him," Gordievsky says. "He drank and continued to work, meeting people and talking and it was only late in the evening he started to feel unwell. In three days, it was clear that he was a goner."

Litvinenko died after three weeks of agony in a London hospital and the poison wasn't identified as polonium until shortly after his death. Later, British prosecutors named ex-KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi, one of the Russians Litvinenko had met for tea, as their chief suspect. However, Lugovoi had by then returned to Russia and Moscow refused to hand him back for trial. Russian authorities dismissed all charges of Moscow's involvement in the Litvinenko attack as "silly."

Is Polonium Imperfect Because It Leaves A Trail?

Polonium has one significant drawback. If investigators are alert enough to detect it has been used, they can follow the radioactive trail it leaves on everything it has come into contact with before the killing to find and identify a suspect.

This is what happened in the Litvinenko case. Investigators found traces of polonium in the hotel room where the tea was served and followed the trail backward, matching it with Lugovoi's movements.

For this reason, those using polonium count heavily on their murder weapon not being found.

But there is one thing more that assassins using polonium must be careful about. And that is to not to be killed themselves by it.

"The people like the KGB officers who killed in London were instructed how to keep [the polonium]. It was packed very securely in a bottle and it was opened only in the small kitchen of the hotel room and then poured into the kettle," Gordievsky says.

"And they themselves never touched it. But still, the main assassin was held [in a Moscow hospital because he was] unwell the first two weeks after the operation. So there are signs this is really a very risky element."

Today, Lugovoi remains active and in apparently good health. He was elected in 2007 to the Russian parliament on an ultranationalist ticket and is a successful businessman.

How And Where Is Polonium Produced?

Polonium-210 is present in very small amounts in the soil and in the atmosphere but it does not naturally occur in lethal concentrations. However, it can be manufactured in a nuclear reactor by bombarding the isotope bismuth-209 with neutrons. Worldwide, only about 100 grams are produced each year, almost all in Russia.

That means it requires enormous skill and resources to produce polonium and not too many people have access to it.

John Croft, a retired British radiation expert who worked on the Litvinenko case, has said a dose large enough to kill someone would likely have to come from a government with either civilian or military nuclear capabilities.

That category includes Russia and Arafat's foe, Israel. But it also includes dozens of other nations, including the United States.