Litvinenko

Litvinenko being the name of the Russian murdered in London in 2006 by Polonium poisoning. Right or wrong, I have hitherto taken the view that he was something do with Russian spying, murdered for some spying flavoured reason by former colleagues. A chap in a dirty business hoist by his own petard. Being a firm believer that spying is a dirty business, it was not a murder that I was going to get too excited about.

However, it seems that our government had taken this chap's murder so seriously that we had a former judge write a report of some 329 pages (in its web optimised version, see reference 1) and on the occasion of its publication, the NYRB has seen fit to publish an article.

Skimming the NYRB article it seems that my view was wrong and what really happened is rather depressing. The story is that there is a great deal of organised crime in the countries which once made up the Soviet Union (the country which we were so pleased to have smashed up) and that this organised crime has all kinds of links with those now governing those countries. And that Litvinenko's death was a rather botched affair resulting from a falling out of thieves, a squabbling over the spoils. Litvinenko had been a member of a Russian security outfit, a fit chap who, unlike most of his celluloid avatars, neither drank nor smoked, but the falling out does not seem to have had anything very security or intelligence about it, rather a straightforward gangland execution, precipitated by his having become rather sanctimonious & noisy about the activities of his former employers. A bit tiresome that the deed should have been perpetrated here, but given our need to keep on reasonably good terms with our gas company, we are unlikely to do anything much about it.

I dare say the report is an admirable rendering of a complicated story, a rendering down to only just over 300 pages. A fine example of the work of a first class legal mind. However, I doubt whether I shall read it - and I wonder how many people will.

PS: it seems that most Russians regard the murderers as heroes, if not, these days, heroes of the Soviet Union.

Reference 1: https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/.