The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
The Death of Alexander Litvinenko
Lanz
...Za?Registered User regular
...Za?Registered User regular
Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian spy who's become famous for his critique of the Russian government and even moreso for his mysterious poisoning on the day of a meeting with an Italian Informant died today from said poisoning he incurred earlier this month.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6178890.stm
I have to admit, I'm loath to buy into the "ZOMG RUSSIA'S KILLING CRITICS" theory, but it does seem suspicious (enough for the authorities to be investigating it as they are), especially when the meating with Scaramella was in regards to, IIRC, investigating the death of Russian journalist (and critic of the Russian government) Anna Politkovskaya.
Additional Info:
Profile on Litvinenko
BBC article on Litvinenko's conditioning worsening earlier in the week
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6178890.stm
Ex-Russian spy dies in hospital
Former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko has died in hospital three weeks after apparently being poisoned in London.
University College Hospital, London, said Mr Litvinenko, 43, died at 2121 GMT on Thursday and the cause of his condition was still being investigated.
Friends have said the ex-KGB agent was poisoned because of his criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin - Russia has denied any involvement.
Scotland Yard said they were now investigating "an unexplained death".
Defector
Alex Goldfarb, speaking on behalf of Mr Litvinenko's family outside the hospital, said: "We are all shocked and horrified at this terrible crime. Tonight is a night of mourning."
He added that his friend had died with "a clear conscience, a clear heart and with dignity".
Mr Litvinenko, who defected to the UK in 2000 and was later granted asylum after claiming persecution and took citizenship, fell ill on November 1 after a series of meetings in central London.
He was initially admitted to Barnet General Hospital hours later before being transferred to University College Hospital on 17 November as his condition worsened.
His condition deteriorated further when he suffered a heart attack overnight on Wednesday and he died in intensive care.
A hospital spokesman said: "Every avenue was explored to establish the cause of [Mr Litvinenko's] condition and the matter is now an ongoing investigation being dealt with by detectives from New Scotland Yard.
"Because of this we will not be commenting any further on this matter. Our thoughts are with Mr Litvinenko's family."
Mr Litvinenko had recently been investigating the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, another critic of the Putin government.
In an interview with Friday's Times newspaper, film-maker Andrei Nekrasov said he had spoken to Mr Litvinenko, a close friend, hours before he fell unconscious for the last time.
He said Mr Litvinenko told him: "I want to survive, just to show them. The bastards got me but they won't get everybody."
Thallium theory
Initial reports from UCH at the weekend said Mr Litvinenko had been poisoned with the heavy metal thallium, but later it was suggested that some form of radioactive material may have been used.
Head of critical care at the hospital, Dr Geoff Bellingan, has subsequently dismissed both of these explanations.
Chemistry expert Dr Andrea Sella, of University College London, said: "[The doctors] have a problem. They have to find some unspecified poison and they don't know what it is.
"They don't know whether it is a single substance or a mixture."
Before Mr Litvinenko's death, police said they suspected "deliberate poisoning" was behind his illness and anti-terrorism police were heading up the investigation.
Investigators have been examining two meetings he had on 1 November - one at a London hotel with a former KGB agent and another man, and a later rendezvous with Italian security consultant Mario Scaramella at a sushi restaurant in London's West End.
Mr Scaramella, who is involved in an Italian parliamentary inquiry into Russian secret service activity, said he organised the meeting because he wanted to discuss an e-mail he had received.
Both the Kremlin and Russia's foreign intelligence service, the SVR, have denied any part in poisoning Mr Litvinenko, who was a former security agent with Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB).
I have to admit, I'm loath to buy into the "ZOMG RUSSIA'S KILLING CRITICS" theory, but it does seem suspicious (enough for the authorities to be investigating it as they are), especially when the meating with Scaramella was in regards to, IIRC, investigating the death of Russian journalist (and critic of the Russian government) Anna Politkovskaya.
Additional Info:
Profile on Litvinenko
BBC article on Litvinenko's conditioning worsening earlier in the week
Lanz on
0
Posts
I'll admit, I don't know much on Russia's government as it stands now, it just seemed unbelievable to me we'd be seeing critics silenced this way in (what I assumed was) a modern democratic nation.
Right now, Russia is being run by the mafia as much, if not moreso than by the government.
...they're not democratic.
I see then, thanks for correcting that mistake on my part.
They were moving in that direction for a while, but apparently there's no room in the budget for a fair number of those pesky regional elections they used to have, and having them all appointed by Moscow's quicker. We've been too busy giving their KGB deathcommando president really, really, really stupid nicknames to call them on it. I'm still kind of wondering how that's going to come back and bite Bush in the ass once he's out of office.
The fact that an apparently custom poison cocktail was used also lends more credence to the big conspiricy theory. It wasen't Joe blow hitman with the rat poison. (or cyanide or arsenic or even straight up thallium apparently)
I'd say it is a mess. Remember until '92 when they got the democracy bug, Russia was ruled by a monarchy for centuries, and then communisim. In the democracy scene, thier still in thier infancy.
Also, does anyone remember that political opponent from a big oil company Putin locked up about a year ago? Whatever happened to him?
What also disturbs me is the people getting the warm fuzzies for the communist days, although if you weren't one of the ones getting shipped off I suppose it might have been somewhat better than the czars.
I'll be fine, just give me a minute, a man's got a limit, I can't get a life if my heart's not in it.
The thing is,the russians have been having a lot of seemingly odd political deaths,including that reporter whos name escapes me,and because im too lazy to google right now...
She made the claim that Putin's decision to assault the theatre in Moscow held by Chechen Terrorists was a deliberate move to keep the fighting going and inflame tensions to keep the people angry.Apparently,negotiations were almost at a breakthrough and it could have ended with nary a shot.Or so its believed.Oh those russians
My little bro lived in Russia for a year or two; according to him the mafia owns or has their fingers in just about everything.
Also, bribery is an essential part of any government interaction.
Edit: and a Google News search for "Russian Mafia" turns up a story about 9 mobsters getting busted in Spain. One of them was an advisor to Boris Yeltsin.
According to Channel 4 news the refinement of Polonium-201 would need resources that only a country could provide.
[spoiler:ecbf89efc4]Putin.[/spoiler:ecbf89efc4]
None of the "experts" I've heard on the radio or internets have even thrown a little bit of water on the theory that it was essentially a KGB hit, though some have speculated that there are so many free agent assassins running about that it might have been an independent attempt by some free agent to try to get in good with the "in crowd".
And then we need an entirely different word to describe states like China and the USSR where there is a nominally democratic government with for example a parliament but which absolutely no one actually believes is in fact a democratic organ.
Unless of course it wasn't anything to do with the poison and then its gets a lot more interesting
I'll be fine, just give me a minute, a man's got a limit, I can't get a life if my heart's not in it.
One vote for Schrödinger's democracy.
Press conference with some British government face in 90 minutes.
A few years from now we'll be all like 'This war's got nothing to do with democracy, it's all about the butane'.
so, how'd that turn out? I haven't seen anything about it yet.