Russian Spy Poisoning Is Cleared Up

Alexander Litvinenko

Move on, folks. Nothing to see here. Case closed. Because the Russian newspapers say Putin isn't responsible although the Russian Special Forces can't be ruled out.

Pro-government newspapers poured cold water on Saturday on claims that the killing of former Russian intelligence agent Alexander Litvinenko was the work of the Kremlin.

The official Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper said that Litvinenko's poisoning death in London could have been orchestrated by his associate, the Russian exiled businessman Boris Berezovsky, in order to discredit Russian authorities.

The death could have resulted from "joint actions between former Russian special service agents and the fugitive oligarch Boris Berezovsky," the paper said, saying that Berezovsky would have no compunction about killing a former friend.

"Getting rid of a superfluous former associate, who furthermore held secrets dangerous to the fugitive oligarch, is entirely in the style" of Berezovsky, Rossiyskaya Gazeta said.

While devoting most of its article to Berezovsky's possible involvement, the newspaper acknowledged that "the liquidation of the traitor by Russian special forces, of course, cannot be ruled out".

The mass circulation tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda meanwhile was scathing of claims in the Western media that the Kremlin was involved in Litvinenko's death.

"Vile -- that's the feeling that arises when one sees the pandemonium that the West has created around the killing and death of Alexander Litvinenko. Hardly has the man's body cooled when they take up their virtual battering rams and hammer at Russia's authority," Komsomolskaya Pravda said.

"For whom was Litvinenko's murder profitable? For Putin, for the over-reaching special services, as a suspicious chorus of Western newspapers bellows?" the paper demanded, before answering its own question.

"Sure! Why would Russian authorities dirty themselves over some kind of deserter of an ex-special services officer....? Already for six years, like an ass, he did all the damage he could to the 'Putin regime' and represented absolutely no threat to the Kremlin," Komsomolskaya Pravda said.

(read more)