As my regular readers know I have always found the idea that Russia would send assassins to kill Alexander Litvinenko a ludicrous waste of effort. Litvinenko was a small time, outrageous misfit who only made Putin look like a respectable, serious leader in comparison. Litvinenko was of no use to Putin dead, and there was only a massive PR downside to a bungled assassination.

Which made the use of Polonium-210, the deadly radioactive material once used in triggers for older nuclear bombs, even more ludicrous. A material that could be traced back to its production source (as all radioactive material can be) and which killed slowly instead of silencing the target, and also showed clear signs of radiation poisoning is not the weapon one would use to silence a critic. It would only make the target a well-known martyr. And the cost! for the price of a few millionths of a gram of Po-210 you could hire 10,000 street thugs with .22 caliber pistols.

My view has been, with the pattern of Litvinenko constantly meeting with the Russia-based businessman Lugovoi (and many times with businessman Kovtun) Litvinenko was trying to make some kind of killer deal, possibly in smuggling nuclear contraband, when the containment system for the Po-210 failed and exposed Litvinenko, Kovtun and Lugovoi to the deadly material. Litvinenko was obviously either the closest to the spill or accidentally inhaled/ingested the material in greater quantities than his two associates – because he died while they nearly died. But if you look at the month of October, 2006 you find three trips to London by Lugovoi, and at least three meetings with Litvinenko, and Po-210 trails at each trip. We know Po-210 was smuggled through London in October of last year. And it is clear there were possibly 3 consignments of the material. And the amount that killed Litvinenko was so microscopic it could not be seen, let alone handled. Don’t even bother to claim it required three trips to smuggle.

No, there clearly was a smuggling effort going on, and the idea it was aimed at killing the marginal Litvinenko is an insult to people’s intelligence. What has always bothered me was the UK authorities always seemed to buy into the media hype – even though they should know better and be sweating bullets that this material was being shipped through London where it appears to to have been dispersed to many points beyond the UK (since at every meeting with Lugovoi and Litvinenko there were many rooms contaminated, as if it was a distribution or collection point). But now we have a new angle coming out.

We know Litvinenko was a radical schemere desperate to make big money. And he had no scruples about what it would take to get rich. We knew he had no qualms with blackmail and he was allied with Chechen Mulsim terrorists. What recently came out was he and his mentor, Boris Berezovsky, had coordinated their efforst with Britain’s foreign intelligence agency MI6. Being classic Russian dissidents and self imposed exils, these two provided what intelligence they could to MI6. There is no doubt of a connection – though I would suspect they were intelligence assets, not employees of MI6.

Now, from a Russian who was knew Boris Berezovsky and Litvinenko and worked with MI6 as an intel asset, we see a new picture which suggests Litvinenko was an MI6 asset that might have gone bad. Which is why the UK authorities have not publicized the nuclear contraband angle to all of this. If Litvinenko was an asset gone bad, Britain needed to cover their big butts for letting him get out of control right under their noses and endanger all of London and possibly the West:

Vyacheslav Zharko, a former Russian security service officer who earlier admitted working for British intelligence, said Saturday murdered Alexander Litvinenko and fugitive Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky introduced him to MI6.

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Zharko said Berezovsky, who was granted political asylum in U.K. in 2003, introduced him to Litvinenko in London in 2002.

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When asked who may be behind the murder of secret service defector Litvinenko, who died of radioactive poisoning November 23, 2006 in London, Zharko said that in his opinion it could be a result Litvinenko’s ‘personal experiments.’

‘On the whole there was an absolutely negative attitude toward Litvinenko within Berezovsky’s circle. Eventually, Boris Abramovich [Berezovsky] moved him away from himself and considerably cut his allowance,’ Zharko said.

‘The British at the same time declined his services. He [Litvinenko] kept telling me that he needed money badly. Possibly, that with the help of [Akhmed] Zakayev and his other Chechen ‘friends’ he could have got involved in smuggling of radioactive materials, and then – by accident or not – received a lethal dose. This is my personal opinion.’

Berezovsky and Chechen emissary Zakayev were both granted political asylum in the U.K. after fleeing Russia, where they are wanted on charges of fraud and complicity in terrorism, respectively.

This new picture is very telling. Litvinenko was a loose cannon whom nobody took seriously. In fact, he was such a burden Berezovsky and MI6 had to dump him. This is not the image of a man worthy of two seconds of Putin’s attention. More here and here. But what is critical to remember is Litvinenko’s ties to Chechen Islamo Fascists, who declared Litvinenko a martyr to their cause a day after he passed away. And it is important to note that the Chechen not only built and deployed on nuclear bomb (1995), but actually built a second one a few years later. I find the nexus of Po-210 and Litvinenko and the Chechens (the only group to ever deploy nuclear dirty bombs) too much of a coincidence to ignore. And now I can see that maybe what is happening is MI6 is covering up for a massive mistake.

Let’s assume Berezovksy (who had Po-210 trails all through his offices, supposedly from Litivnenko’s visit on Nov 1 and Lugovoi’s visit on Oct 31st) is a MI6 asset and very pro West (I am not buying into this yet, by a long shot). And let’s assume he earned asylum in the UK by providing critical intel (he used to site on the Russian National Security Council). And let’s assume Litvinenko was brought under Berezovsky’s umbrella for a one time favor he did for Boris. This doesn’t make Litvinenko a saint – just a low level asset of a bigger, more critical UK asset.

It appears that Litvinenko’s greed was making him reckless and dangerous. Check out this part of the interview:

n the view of Vyacheslav Zharko, the death of Alexander Litvinenko in London was caused by his “some personal experiments.” The ex-officer of Russia’s tax police and ex-agent of the British Secret Intelligence Service said, “I think, it was caused by some personal experiments of Sasha. Berezovsky distanced him and lowered his salary, and the Britons simultaneously began to refuse from his services.” He said Litvinenko told him he needed “money at all costs.”

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In the view of Zharko, Litvinenko produced the impression “of a man who failed to find his vocation, of an explosive, adventurous nature and very susceptible to spectacular effects.” “And finally it seemed to me that something wrong happened with his mind,” said Zharko noting that Litvinenko began to dream of a quick transfer to Russia and claimed that he would become the new FSB director and promised to Zharko to make him his deputy.

According to Zharko, in early 2000 the Britons themselves “categorically prohibited me to deal with Litvinenko.” They said straightforwardly: “Sasha is not quite in his right mind.”

I think the Brits discovered their ‘assets’ in London had been up to serious no good and refuse to admit it. Either they refuse to admit it publically, which is why the stick with the Lugovoi scenario, or worse – they may be in denial. The only other explanations are even worse to contemplate – that the entire mess is a screwed up covert op known or ran by UK authorities. I tend to think the UK would never do such a thing, but being blindsided by volatile people like Litvinenko is not far fetched at all.

Litvinenko is rejected by Berezovsky and MI6, so he goes off on one of his get-rich-quick schemes with his Chechen allies to smuggle Po-210 gathered from someplace like the US or Canada (out of the Russian tracking system for their Po-210 product). He went into business with his Chechen buddies (see here for more on Litvinenko’s ties to Chechen terrorists), possibly unbeknownst to his MI6 handlers or Berezovsky. And it the process he came into contact with the deadly Po-210. The last time in sufficient dose to kill him. But he died a slow death that rattled his mentor who knew he had to do some damage control – which he did. And in return for Litvinenko’s wife and son being taken care of for the rest of their lives, Litvinenko promised to do one more job for Berezovsky. Litvinenko provided a deathbed accusation that the Po-210 was a political assassination attempt by Putin’s government (which is why it reads more like a Goldfarb press release than the final words of a crude talking, barely legible english speaking security agent). This served Berezovsky’s needs, because he wants to over throw Putin before democratic elections put in another man like Putin who makes life miserable for Boris.

And UK authorities could easily decide to go along with the charade because it provides them the CYA cover they need to hide the fact one of the people they gave asylum to was smuggling Po-210 right under their noses. Would an intelligence agency buy into a Berezovsky ruse against Putin? Depends on how bad the real story of Litvinenko and the smuggled Po-210 is. If it would shatter Britain’s trust in the government they might make that kind of deal. If it exposed a serious weakness that al-Qaeda might expose or intelligence they do not want to have come out – they might make that deal. There are lots of reasons why the UK may have been compelled to let Berezovsky’s version of events retain credibility. I don’t buy it. Lots of us don’t. But I have yet to figure out why UK law enforcement blindly buys it.