Cahal Milmo, Jason Bennetto, Andy McSmith
and Andrew Osborn
London
Independent
Saturday, December 9, 2006
The Kremlin has launched an aggressive public
relations war designed to undo the damage caused by its claimed
involvement in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko.
After five weeks of allegations that the poisoning of the former
KGB agent was sanctioned by President Vladimir Putin, state-controlled
media in Moscow made a concerted attack on Mr Litvinenko's reputation
describing him as a hard-up fantasist whose death was part
of a smear campaign against Russia.
The onslaught represented a reversal of the initial silence from
the Russian media and senior officials about his death.
The state-controlled Channel One used its flagship crime programme,
broadcast on Thursday evening, to lay a succession of accusations
against the ex-spy, including the claim that he only fled to Britain
in 2000 to escape arrest for his involvement in organised crime
and extorting money from businessmen.
In a separate attack, Sergei Stepashin, the former head of the
FSB security service, which employed Mr Litvinenko, said the assassination
had been staged to damage the Kremlin. Mr Stepashin said: "It
is apparent that those who wanted to tarnish the current Russian
authorities, primarily the President, killed Litvinenko. I, as
former Federal Security Service director, may state this for sure."
The counter-offensive came as a prominent exile and friend of
Mr Litvinenko claimed that a large part of the £750m global
PR budget set aside by Moscow has been directed into undermining
the ex-spy's credibility.
Shortly before he died on 23 November from a massive dose of
the radioactive isotope polonium-210, Mr Litvinenko dictated a
statement in which he directly accused Mr Putin of ordering his
murder.
Akhmed Zakayev, a former Chechen resistance leader now exiled
in London, told The Independent: "There wouldn't have been
such a scandal surrounding Litvinenko's death if polonium had
not been found in his body. If he had been killed by any other
means a car accident, a gunshot, anything it would
have been a story for a day. Russia now has to wipe its image
clean of polonium."
Evidence that a PR counter-attack was under way came in lengthy
tape recordings broadcast by Channel One of conversations between
Mr Litvinenko and Boris Berezovsky, the exiled oligarch who was
the former spy's ally and financial sponsor. The recordings sought
to suggest that Mr Litvinenko was inventing allegations that would
help his patron in return for "a fee" . The programme,
The Person and The Law, alleged that Mr Berezovsky had cut his
monthly allowance to the former agent from £5,000 to £1,500
and he had money problems.
Mr Zakayev said there was evidence that Moscow was trying to plant
stories against Mr Litvinenko in the British media, which it has
accused of hysteria in its response to the poisoning. He said
claims that Mr Litvinenko was trying to blackmail an unnamed oligarch
in one Sunday newspaper had been made by a PR worker for a state-owned
investment agency.
The battle to besmirch or lionise the memory of Mr Litvinenko
came as Scotland Yard detectives were investigating whether the
former KGB lieutenant-colonel was the victim of multiple attacks
on 1 November the day he fell ill. The Independent has learnt
that toxicology tests have revealed two separate "spikes"
of polonium-210 contamination, indicating that he was attacked
twice.
Detectives believe that Mr Litvinenko could have been targeted
at the Itsu sushi restaurant, where he met the Italian academic
Mario Scaramella, and the Millennium Hotel in Mayfair, where he
met two Russian business contacts Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry
Kovtun. Mr Lugovoi and Mr Kovtun have also been contaminated with
polonium-210 and are suffering from radiation sickness in a Moscow
hospital.
The week's events
* SATURDAY: Andrei Lugovoi, one of three men to meet Mr Litvinenko
at the Millennium Hotel on 1 November, reveals he too has been
contaminated.
* SUNDAY: Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, one of the UK's senior
intelligence figures, points the finger at Moscow for the killing.
* MONDAY: Nine British detectives go to Moscow as part of the
investigation.
* TUESDAY: The detectives are barred from personally questioning
suspects.
* WEDNESDAY: Scotland Yard says death was murder. Radiation found
at British embassy in Moscow.
* THURSDAY: Mr Litvinenko's funeral in Highgate Cemetery, north
London. Russia opens inquiry into his murder and the attempted
murder of Dmitry Kovtun, who he also met on 1 November.
* FRIDAY: Russia begins to discredit its former spy. Detectives
say multiple poison attacks possible.
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