#24 - JRL 2006-262 - JRL Home
Date: Mon 20 Nov 06
From: Robert Bruce Ware (rware@siue.edu)
Subject: Query Concerning Politkovskaya/ Litvinenko
Cases
Here are two questions that have been troubling me regarding the murder of Anna Politkovskaya and the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko: First, what could Litvinenko possibly hope to learn about Politkovskaya's murder by poking around London? Second, if Litvinenko were not likely to learn anything important about Politkovskaya’s murder from the distance of London, then why would the Kremlin or the FSB have taken an interest in his “investigation”, or found any motive for poisoning him?
It is possible that Litvinenko was investigating Boris Berezovsky's involvement. Berezovsky resides in the UK, and since Berezovsky is clearly interested in embarrassing and isolating the Kremlin, he may have had a motive for Politkovskaya’s murder. Politkovskaya’s murder did in fact embarrass and isolate the Kremlin. But of course, many people had possible motives for Politkovskaya’s death, and motive alone is insufficient for any conclusion. More significantly, Berezovsky was Litvinenko’s supporter. So it is unlikely that the latter was attempting to implicate the former. But if Litvinenko were not investigating Berezovsky’s involvement, then what could he possibly have learned from London that would have any importance for the Politkovskaya case?
On the other hand, if Politkovskaya were murdered in order to create a tsunami of weakly supported suspicions and allegations against the Kremlin in the western media, then that strategy was successful, because that was in fact a result. If that were the motive for Politkovskaya’s death, then the same motive could have led to the poisoning of Litvinenko, since this is now creating a second media tsunami that is further isolating the Kremlin. Perhaps Litvinenko really could not have learned anything important from London, and he was only seeking personal publicity by announcing his attempt to do so. He thereby might have inadvertently made himself a target for those interested in further isolating Russia.
Of course, it is also possible that Politkovskaya really was poisoned by the FSB on her way to Beslan, and that her subsequent murder was the result of a Kremlin/FSB conspiracy. If that were so, then it is also possible that Litvinenko was poisoned by the same conspirators. But the crucial link that is missing from this chain of thought is an explanation of what Litvinenko might have discovered in London regarding Politkovskaya’s murder that could pose any threat to anyone in the Kremlin or the FSB.
I would be grateful if any JRL readers could help me to account for that missing link, or otherwise help me to think this through.
My experience is that events in and around the North Caucasus are primarily local events. Since people at a distance from the region often lack information about local events, they are prone to project global considerations upon regional news, even when people in the locality know little and care nothing about global perceptions.
It is certainly possible that both Politkovskaya and Litvinenko were harmed by agents of the Kremlin, or by enemies of the Kremlin, and it is interesting to consider these possibilities. Yet there are also dozens of other possible explanations that are given less consideration.
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