A reader provides the following updates on the Litvineko saga:
As for some interesting new stuff on Litvinenko, not much is out since Scotland Yard turned its dossier over to CPS (the Crown Prosecutorial Services). I doubt this case will see a courtroom. What’s funny is that in mid-January, when British reports first came out blatantly accusing Lugovoi, he even at one point stupidly said that he would, I paraphrase, go to all lengths to defend his reputation aggressively — implying he might sue for slander. I think someone with more than two vodka and polonium soaked brain cells reminded him that that would entail actually going back to Britain to appear in court, and that he can’t do that. He shut up that talk quickly. But for new confirmation of details that were considered speculation, check the BBC Newsnight report on Alexander Litvinenko’s dossier. This report does several things:
- reveals a claim by Yuri Felshtinsky that Andrei Lugovoi was in London on October 12, 2006 — a time the British authorities reportedly did not know about
- confirms Litvinenko was employed by Titon (which has a sister company, Erinys) International to perform due diligence background checks on Russian officials, company officers and owners for investors — information reported by Larisa Alexandrovna at At Largely and by Litvinenko’s colleague Yuri Shvets to the BBC’s Tom Mangold (and if Shvets’s previous information of a $100,000 contract with Titon is true, then Litvinenko was hardly “penniless,” as Julia Svetlichnaja-Svetlichnaya claimed, by the way)
- presents an 8-pp. dossier on Kremlin-connected, Aeroflot chair Victor Ivanov (this is completely new info) which was written by Litvinenko, then reveals that Litvinenko passed this dossier to Lugovoi in late September 2006
It’s also interesting that the British HPA will hold a
symposium in late March to discuss with first responders and other pertinant personnel the public health threat presented by the polonium exposure in
London, and their response to it:
Also, more on our favorite “honey trap,” Julia Svetlichnaja: According to James Heartfield’s home page, on 30 Jan. at 2 pm, a “seminar” on Litvinenko case and the “New Cold War” for CSD turned surreal when Aftenposten reporter Hilde Harbo apparently turned up to continue her inquiry. LR: Notice that while Heartfield attempts to attack Harbo and her source, he says nothing about the status of Svetlichnaja’s alleged lawsuit against Aftenposten, which has seemingly not progressed at all, nor does he answer any of the pressing questions about Svetlichnaja’s conflict of interest. It’s pure propaganda, and there’s no attempt to give a full report on the proceedings, much less a transcript. Amazingly (or perhaps not so), no reference to Svetlichnaja is made on his home page itself except for the December 2006 press conference.
I found a Russian article which gave more info on her background. I put it through an online translation filter (meat grinder?) to discover this mentions her hometown is Cherepovets and that her father was a “known party functionary” who died (I believe perhaps somewhat mysteriously according to this, but it’s hard to discern) in the early ’90s.
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As if the crazed, frenzied diatribe of Vladimir Putin in Munich was not enough, now a neo-Soviet general is talking unilateral repudiation of strategic arms treaties. Welcome to Cold War II, the one Russia provoked and can’t possibly survive. The Associated Press reports:
