Russian spy death gets weirder still

The death of Alexander Litvinenko really is becoming something out of a John le Carré novel. The former KGB agent was a known associate of Boris Berezovsky, the former oligarch living in Britain known to be less than friendly to Putin’s Kremlin. Berezovsky visited Litvinenko in the hospital before he died and accused Putin of being behind the poisoning of his friend. Yesterday, traces of the radioactive substance that killed Litvinenko, Polonium 201, were found at Berezovsky’s office in London, a location Litvinenko visited the day he was allegedly poisoned. So, did Litvinenko carry the traces with him, having been poisoned earlier? Or, as some are suggesting, would the Kremlin not bother offing Litvinenko because he wasn’t worth it? Here’s Tom Parfitt on the Guardian newsblog:

The people who are feeding us th[e] line [about Putin’s involvement] are Litvinenko’s cronies: Boris Berezovsky, the businessman who lives in self-imposed exile in London, and Akhmed Zakayev, the Chechen separatist leader.

Mr Berezovsky, as we all know, is Machiavelli’s Prince in living form, a notorious manipulator who once pulled the strings at the Kremlin. Mr Zakayev is the Chechen rebel envoy who saw no contradiction in serving in the government in exile headed by terrorist mastermind, Shamil Basayev, the architect of the Beslan school siege.

Slightly compromised people, no?

All intrigue, no answers.