(Reuters) Dead Russian spy planned blackmail: acquaintance

[Eugene]

Dead Russian spy planned blackmail: acquaintance

Fri Jan 5, 3:59 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - An acquaintance of a former Russian agent killed by radiation
poisoning in London said in a television interview that Alexander Litvinenko, who
accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering his murder, had planned to
blackmail a wealthy Russian businessman.

Russian Julia Svetlichnaya said she was a graduate student in London when she
spoke to Litvinenko -- a former Russian state security officer who died on November
23 in London after ingesting polonium 210 -- about a book she was writing.

"He told me ... he's doing a project for blackmailing one of the Russian oligarchs
(exiled Russian businessmen) ... in U.K.," Svetlichnaya told CBS television's "60
Minutes" in a program to be aired on Sunday.

"He thought that it was actually an OK thing to do because this particular person,
as Litvinenko claimed, had a connection with ... Putin," she said.

-snip-

Full article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070105/wl_nm/britain_poisoning_blackmail_dc

That person wasn't Berezovsky, she says.

[illinoisprogressive]

1. Many twists and turns in this facsinating story