BBC: Litvinenko 'killed over dossier'

[Eugene]

Last Updated: Saturday, 16 December 2006, 00:55 GMT

Litvinenko 'killed over dossier'

Former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko was murdered because of information
he held on a powerful Kremlin figure, an ex-business associate has said.

Ex-spy Yuri Shvets said Mr Litvinenko was commissioned by a reputable UK firm
to provide information on Russia.

Mr Litvinenko was poisoned after his dossier containing damaging details was
deliberately leaked to the high-ranking Moscow figure, Mr Shvets told the BBC.

-snip-

He said the British company wanted the eight-page dossier of commercial and
political information before it invested millions of pounds in Russia.

-snip-

Full article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6184919.stm

Note: The article is a teaser for a BBC radio interview with Shvets.
The article does not name the Kremlin figure.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Link to the radio programme (30 minutes)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/radio4/rhnav/choice/sat/t1/-/radio/aod/radio4_aod.shtml?radio4/litvinenko

I heard it - very interesting. The target of the dossier is not named (not surprising - they don't have proof that he ordered the murder, so they wouldn't be able to defend a libel case). It does name the 2 people said to have carried the polonium, and done the poisoning (I think they've been named elsewhere already - they claim they were contaminated when meeting Litvinenko about 2 weeks earlier, but that doesn't really fir with when his symptoms started); they think there was a 3rd person, not yet name, I think, involved.

The BBC have seen some of the dossier. The theory is that one of Litvinenko's associates was still an FSB informer, and Litvinenko showed him the dossier because they were going to work together on similar projects - checking out Russian businesses for Western companies thinking of working with them. The informer took it to the high-up Kremlin man, who then had he clout to get hold of the polonium. I think the idea was that it serves as a warning to anyoen who tries to investigate powerful people in the Russian government.