The Terminal Spy [Hardcover]

This book centres around the murder by polonium poisoning of Aleksandr Litvinenko in 2006, a case which was big front page news in the UK and, I think, USA, though I did not see any great interest in the newspapers I glanced at in Moscow, where I happened to be staying for a couple of days during the aftermath (and the diplomatic kefuffle) in, I think, August of 2007.

The book goes into the background of the deceased and his links with the "oligarchs" who, fugitives from Russia, now live in London, Tel Aviv and elsewhere. Litvinenko was (secretly, in Soviet times) baptised a Russian Orthodox Christian on his mother's side. His father's provenance is not explored, though I wonder whether he was not Jewish, with a name like Walter, which, in Russia, would often indicate either ethnic German or Jewish origins. Litvinenko became a member of the Dzerzhinsky Brigade, a kind of Praetorian Guard under the Interior Ministry, before tranferring to the K.G.B., though not its prestigious First Chief Directorate (now and since 1992, a separate service called the SVR). Litvinenko worked in the murky world of anti-Chechen activity and often warfare, where torture, bombing and poisoning were almost normal. With the collapse of the Soviet state, he joined by default the internal security service, the FSB, being a reorganization of the former 2nd, 3rd and other KGB Chief Directorates etc.

The chaos of post-Soviet Russia led to state officials and officers also running businesses, though mostly on a smaller scale than the true "oligarchs" who had bought up state assets for a song, an example being Berezovsky's purchase of the ORT television network for US$320,000, which was worth in advertizing rights alone some US$100 Million. Berezovsky, like all the main "oligarchs" who emerged in those days of socio-economic near-chaos (which I saw for myself in 1993, on my first and brief visit to Moscow), was a Jew. Few patriotic Russians consider Jews as "Russian", no matter what their birth state or passport. In the end, all or almost all of those "oligarchs" fled to London and elsewhere, especially after the accession to power of Putin. There is interesting analysis of this aspect of recent history in the book.

In London, home to perhaps over a hundred thousand ex-Soviet citizens, Litvinenko was subsidized by Berezovsky and a house given to him to live in. One day he left to have lunch and then tea with some Russians and was poisoned with a highly radioactive isotope, polonium.

I learned a lot about polonium and its characteristics from this book. The mass media reports at the time did not explain the why and how so well.

The problem of who administered the poison to Litvinenko seems to be reasonably clear (but to my mind not beyond the English "reasonable doubt"), though as to who ordered the killing, that is not so clear. The book seems to come to a tentative conclusion that it was a killing by former or present FSB officers, while the Kremlin turned a Nelsonian eye, rather than a directly ordered assassination along the lines of the notorious mid-80's "poison umbrella" scandal on Waterloo Bridge, carried out by Communist Bulgarian Intelligence. While poisoning seems a strange way to politically kill someone to the British eye, one has to remember the roots of Russia, which include, historically, both the Eastern Roman Empire at Byzantium (Istanbul) and, via the Tatars and Mongols east of the Volga, Imperial China. In both of these imperia, poisoning of opponents was standard both at the imperial Court and elsewhere.

I found this book interesdting, though it faltered a bit toward the end when it was clear that no real conclusion could be drawn. Omar Khayam-like, we went out the same door as in we went. Having said that, the details were very interesting to me and I think it is a worthwhile read.