If it is deemed that Putin really was behind the death of Litvineko and was attempting to silence Boris Berezovsky what recourse does England actually have for killing on their soil in a manner which is designed to cause terror among the general population. I am not sure that they want to break ties with Moscow, and I don’t know of a lot of trade between them. I guess I am wondering if there is any point in them really digging too far?
Nothing.
There is no English government.
So far I’ve seen absolutely no evidence that Putin (or the FSB) was involved.
They appear to have found traces of something that emits Alpha particles on one (or two) aircraft and in a few places in London.
I would be interested in doing searches for similar radioactivity in places Litvineko did not go.
Aircraft that went to Moscow. And hotel room in which the ‘former’ KGB agents who flew in and met the guy. met him. At stronger concentrations than at the Sushi Bar. At dangerous levels in the toilet of the Millenium hotel where he met them. The circumstantial evidence is piling up that there is a Russian connection.
I doubt it’ll ever be proved Putin ordered this and other killings but I’ve no doubt there has been an ongoing ‘will no one rid me of these turbulent priests’ thing going on. He is waging a war on the ‘oligarchs’. (EG rich crooks who aren’t on his side).
The Guardian today is reporting intelligence sources are saying ‘rogue elements’ within the Russian state are responsible. Partially because you’d need access to State Nuclear Labs to get Polonium. Allegedly these 5 ‘rogues’ came in as part of a group of football fans for the Arsenal CSK Moscow game on Nov 1st.
And they say that English football fans behave badly.
The Thomas a Becket stuff sounds plausible.
I would also be very interested in the guy’s autopsy - was he on the way out ?
Polonium 210 seems an odd and complicated way, I can think of easier ones.
Absolutely. We’re going to have to raise our game significantly. Our football clubs clearly need WMD’s to ‘deter’ foreign clubs. The problem is the wolf in the fold clubs like Russian-owned Chelsea.
To be on the safe side I suggest a pre-emptive strike at their next home game.
Yet the inescapable fact is that is what was used and it being detected all over the place. Your feelings about it don’t enter into it.
Is it definitely Polonium 210 in some of the other places - especially the aircraft ?
Other things give off Alpha particles.
Well, for starters that’s a very big “if” - you would need conclusive proof that this execution was sanctioned by Putin.
The only agencies that could possibly generate such evidence would be the intelligence services of Britain or Russia.
Generating that proof would to lead to an embarrassing political situation between Britain and Russia.
So, even if Putin was responsible, and even if conclusive proof of that could be found, it’s not in the interest of either country for that to happen.
Yes it is (unless we are being lied to). Other things may do but I hope and expect science has the ability to tell different radioactive substances apart by now. If it’s not P210 it’s even more frightening. Two lots of radioactive crap around.
And I want to know - in this age where baby milk is hard to smuggle on a plane - how on earth did radioactive death-stuff get on? That in itself suggests state involvement to bypass security at Moscow airport. And if it does not then we have to ask why bother with security measures at all if p210 can be smuggled with impunity?
And if no state actors can get P210 in Russia then we are all seriously screwed.
Yea - expect it to be swept under the rug. I suspect this whole ‘rogue’ meme has been let loose as the first part of the process.
Aren’t they only talking micrograms of the stuff though? It doesn’t strike me as terribly difficult to smuggle somethinh that small, and an airport radiation detector isn’t going to find a tiny alpha emitter.
There seems to be an increasing feeling that Putin would be mad to order such a killing directly - it’s provided negative publicity at the worst possible time (as he attends an international summit meeting).
What’s more likely is that Putin has created a state in which an unfettered FSB can take the law into their own hands - incl. assassinations of undesirables on foreign soil.
One commentator on BBC radio last week linked this case closely with the murder of Anna Politkovskaya - and that’s linked to human rights abuses by Russian security forces in the northern caucases.
With these deaths a lot of people have been let off the hook - up to 40 court cases are pending, and Anna Politkovskaya was to be a star witness in a number of them.
So yes… it probably was carried out by russian security forces, but no… Putin didn’t order it directly (IMO)
There was quite a lot about P210
It seems that it emits only Alpha particles and they are extremely weak, they can be stopped by a paper bag - so a small glass phial or even something made of metal would make it totally undetectable.
Also the required quantities are minute.
One could stick enough to kill 1000 people inside a wristwatch and it would be totally undetectable. Well that is what I heard on the radio.
But explosives fall into the same undetectable category if sealed correctly. Hence all the paranoia about toothpaste. The question also is - if it was so undetectable how come they are detecting it on the planes?
I guess one answer is - contamination on the return flight - with no security to dedect the contamination on passenger’s hands or whatever. (I’m assuming they were’nt just spilling the stuff for the fun of it) If it was contaminated people then openly radioactive stuff got through detection.
Aren’t you forgetting that bunch of rags from Mould Trafford, owned by Glazer.
yes, I’m a Blue
Me too! 
And as the Greatest Threat to World Peace the Glazer’s certainly need dealing with. In this case subtelty is called for. Prawn sarnies with P210 dressing?
British Intelligence may enact reprisals against Russian agents.
Or begin shipping small arms & antitank rockets to various Rebel factions. Even in small quantities, this could raise plenty of Hell.
Just out of interest, why do you think either is even vaguely likely?
We have a government that’s prepared to go into a nonsensical war just to keep George Bush happy. You really think they’re going to be particularly bothered that Putin may have had someone assasinated in the UK that they would pick a fight with Russia? Please bear in mind that “Analysts predict that, as things stand, by 2020 almost 70% of Britain’s electricity generation will be reliant on gas imported from countries such as Russia.”
If Putin did it, then I wouldn’t be surprised if both governments had already discussed it prior to the event.
“Yo Blair, I need to whack this shithead who’s pissing me off”
“no problem Vlad. We can always say it’s rogue agents.”