Russian Government Involvement Theory
The circumstances surrounding Litvinenko's death led immediately to suspicion that he was killed by a Russian secret service, although there was no hard proof of this and the evidence was only circumstantial. Viktor Ilyukhin, a deputy chairman of the Russian Parliament’s security committee for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, said that he "can’t exclude that possibility". He said: "That former KGB officer had been irritating the Russian authorities for a long time and possibly knew some state secrets. So when our special services got the chance to operate not only inside but outside the country, they decided to get rid of him." He apparently referred to a recent Russian counter-terrorism law that gives the President the right to order such actions. Moreover, it has been reported in the Chechen State Press that an investigator of the Russian apartment bombings, Mikhail Trepashkin wrote in a letter from prison that an FSB team had organised in 2002 to kill Litvinenko. He also reported FSB plans to kill relatives of Litvinenko in Moscow in 2002, although these have not been carried out.
Leonid Nevzlin, a former Yukos oil company shareholder and Russian exile currently living in Israel, told the Associated Press in late November that Litvinenko had given him a document related to a dossier on criminal charges made by Russian prosecutors against people connected to Yukos. Nevzlin, who is charged by Russian prosecutors with having organised killings, fraud and tax evasion (all these charges are widely believed), claimed Litvinenko's inquiries may have provided a motive for his poisoning.
State Duma member Sergei Abeltsev commented on 24 November 2006:
| “ | The deserved punishment reached the traitor. I am confident that this terrible death will be a serious warning to traitors of all colors, wherever they are located: In Russia, they do not pardon treachery. I would recommend citizen Berezovsky to avoid any food at the commemoration for his accomplice Litvinenko. | ” |
Litvinenko's widow Marina Litvinenko told Mail on Sunday that she believed the Russian authorities could have been behind the murder, although she didn't think President Putin himself was directly involved. Furthermore, she said she would not cooperate with the Russian investigators:
| “ | I can't believe that they will tell the truth. I can't believe if they ask about evidence they will use it in the proper way. | ” |
KGB defector Oleg Gordievsky has stated that Andrei Lugovoi "was working on behalf of the KGB with clear instructions from Putin to kill Litvinenko at any price."
Read more about this topic: Alexander Litvinenko Assassination Theories
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