Litvinenko assassins likely to escape justice

For Dignity and Honor, Litvinenko would have been an especially valuable target, said Kalugin, a KGB-era rival of Putin’s who has become a critic of the Kremlin and the FSB since emigrating to the United States in 1995.

And because of Putin’s close connections to the FSB, the president “stood behind the assassination,” Kalugin charged. “I am positive about it. ... Putin belongs to that category of people who do not forgive.”

Investigators running in place
Lugovoi and Kovtun strenuously deny that they had anything to do with Litvinenko’s murder. They say they are businessmen who were simply exploring a deal with a well-connected expatriate.

The told “Dateline” that somebody posing as a barman or a member of the hotel staff must have slipped the polonium into Litvinenko’s tea. They point out that they did not flee London after Litvinenko took ill and that they contacted British authorities themselves when they learned that Litvinenko had been poisoned.

Moreover, they note, they, too, were contaminated with polonium and had to check into a Moscow hospital.

Police appear certain they have found their men, however, and are reported to have recommended conspiracy charges against Lugovoi even though they cannot establish a direct motive. The men may have been “merely following orders” without being fully aware why Litvinenko was targeted, or they may have been “under some kind of coercion, threat or bribe,” surmised McGrory, the Times reporter.

But whether or not Lugovoi or Kovtun personally slipped the polonium into Litvinenko’s cup — investigators are also seeking a third man spotted on surveillance cameras, whom they have identified only as “Vladislav” — police are apparently convinced that the assassination was hatched by the FSB or true-believer former agents loyal to Putin.

That is an assessment shared by Marina Litvinenko, who does not accuse Putin of directly ordering her husband’s assassinaton but says he allowed a culture of violent retribution to flourish.

“Everything what happened in Russia, if it’s happened, it’s Putin decide to do it,” Marina Litvinenko, who speaks broken English, told “Dateline.” “Because without him, it’s just impossible.”

It is an assessment shared by Oleg Kalugin, the onetime top spy for the KGB.

Litvinenko “was a traitor. So was I and a number of others. They have a list,” Kalugin said. “They would love to kill him.”

And it is an assessment shared by Paul Joyal, the Russia specialist. Joyal believes the Kremlin is resisting the British investigation because it is guilty and is hoping to run out the clock.

“It’ll go away in time,” he said. “Maybe not this week. Maybe not next week. But if you just hang in there and deny, at the end of the day — if there’s no one stepping forward saying, ‘I know’ — it will be forgotten.

“And there’s nothing anyone can do.”

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