Litvinenko’s poisoning like a spy movie script

Press bulletins following the death of former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko read like chapters from a Robert Ludlum novel. Death of a double agent, millions in Swiss bank accounts, smuggling an atomic weapon (polonium-210), complicit intelligence services, disinformation and provocateurs. The only thing lacking is a high-speed chase and London shootout. These were done elsewhere.

There have been years of organized crime killings in Moscow, including the recent shooting of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was investigating Chechen oil politics. In 2004, Chechnya’s president Akhmad Kadyrov was killed by a bombing, and ten years before in Moscow, there was a bombing attempt on Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky. Whether or not it was the billionaire’s money that turned Litvinenko in 1997 in Moscow, it appears that he was financed by Berezovsky in London, and the family spokesman, Alex Goldfarb, reportedly a Berezovsky associate, had helped Litvinenko exfiltrate Russia, with a stop-over in Turkey.

Finding traces on so many flights, locations and individuals might suggest a Po-210 smuggling operation, and a case of accidental poisoning, but Scotland Yard is calling it homicide. Recent history seems to support the maxim that there are friendly states but there are no friendly intelligence services. Because of the cost and nuclear facilities required to obtain the poison, it has been noted that the Litvinenko affair has the hallmarks of a covert operation by an intelligence service.

If so, did the operation backfire, leaving telltale trails? Highly radioactive polonium was named by its discoverer, Maria Sklodowska, aka Madame Curie, after her native Poland, and has a half-life of only 138 days. Was such a large lethal dose carried onto British Airways in a lead case, or was it on documents in a sealed envelope? How could the radioactivity clear airport security?

It was reported that Mario Scaramella, an Italian of varied background including nuclear security matters, was the last person to meet with Litvinenko before he showed signs of illness. Earlier Litvinenko had met with some ex-KGB types at a London hotel bar. Among them Andrei Lugovoi, reported to have been security officer at a Berezovsky TV station. Scaramella first claimed to be clean, but he and Lugovoi and another ex-KGB from the hotel meeting were found to have Po-210 contamination.

The comings and goings of Scaramella and Litvinenko over recent months were noted in the local press, from London to Moscow to Tel Aviv. As Scotland Yard’s investigation becomes multinational, with the British intelligence service, the Russian security service, and others in the mix, news reports will hopefully be more complete.

To apply the cui bono factor, who has most to gain, or to lose? It becomes difficult to distinguish data from disinformation, but there may be a good spy movie in it. There is already a movie about Boris Berezovsky, aka Platon Elenin, of multinational holdings and interesting joint ventures.

Perhaps there will be a sequel.

Richard Gay of Blue Hill is a former member of the Central Intelligence Agency.