Russia’s cloaks and daggers
As British investigators try to unravel the mystery of Alexander Litvinenko’s radioactive death in London, some fingers are pointing at the Russian intelligence services. To shed some light on that murky world, FP spoke with Russian journalist and scholar Yevgenia Albats, who had some chilling thoughts on a secret service that may be off the rails: At least ...
As British investigators try to unravel the mystery of Alexander Litvinenko's radioactive death in London, some fingers are pointing at the Russian intelligence services. To shed some light on that murky world, FP spoke with Russian journalist and scholar Yevgenia Albats, who had some chilling thoughts on a secret service that may be off the rails:
At least in Soviet times it was Stalin or [Minister of Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav] Molotov who gave the order for assassinations abroad. In [Premier Leonid] Brezhnev's time, there was a politburo meeting and the head of intelligence gave the order to kill Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov in London back in 1978. At least there was a clear line of authority. Now, I believe we can safely say that there is no clear line of authority in the current secret services. They are out of hand, which is very dangerous.
Check out the whole interview.
At least in Soviet times it was Stalin or [Minister of Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav] Molotov who gave the order for assassinations abroad. In [Premier Leonid] Brezhnev’s time, there was a politburo meeting and the head of intelligence gave the order to kill Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov in London back in 1978. At least there was a clear line of authority. Now, I believe we can safely say that there is no clear line of authority in the current secret services. They are out of hand, which is very dangerous.
Check out the whole interview.
David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist
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