Alexander Litvinenko
Presenting his book
Walter Litvinenko
Alexander Litvinenko was an ex-FSB lieutenant-colonel with KGB experience in fighting organized crime. After working in the KGB and its successor, the FSB, Litvinenko became a dissident of the organization and made accusations on Russian TV that his superiors had ordered for the assassination of Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky. Litvinenko was subsequently discharged from the agency and later arrested in 1999 under counts that he abused his power while in command during the anti-terrorism operation in Kostroma. He was released from prison a month later after signing a pact to not leave the country.
In 2000, Litvinenko escaped from Russia to the UK, where he was granted political asylum and eventually citizenship. He then published two books, Blowing up Russia: Terror from Within and Gang from Lubyanka, where he described Putin's rise to power as a coup d'état organized by the FSB. A stated key element of FSB's strategy was to frighten the people by bombings of apartment buildings in Moscow and other Russian cities. These bombings were blamed on the Chechen terrorists to legitimate the reprisal of military activities in Chechnya, which helped Putin to gain a popular support and be elected as a President. However, these bombings were actually organized by FSB, according to Litvinenko. He also described in great detail connections of FSB and personally Vladimir Putin with organized crime. In the next few years, Litvinenko made allegations about FSB as an organizer of terrorism worldwide, including training of al-Qaeda fighters in Dagestan.
On November 1, 2006, Litvinenko suddenly fell ill, was hospitalized, and died a little more than three weeks later from radiation poisoning via a rare and highly toxic element, Polonium-210. Litvinenko's illness, his revelations about FSB deeds, and public accusations that Russian government officials were behind his poisoning, led to worldwide media coverage.
Walter Litvinenko, Alexander's father, said that a "little, tiny nuclear bomb" had killed his son.
Sources
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litvinenko
The Independent
Article in The Spectator about the world of Alexander Litvinenko
