I, like everyone else I would guess, just cannot buy the story that has settled down as conventional wisdom surrounding the movement of Polonium-210 through London now nearly a year ago, and the brutal death of Alexander Litvinenko from Po-210 poisoning. The ‘facts’ never line up with the story in a nice, neat and common sense way. They are always stretched to the edge of believability (things are possible, but not probable).

The biggest problem in all of this is the fact that both the victim and the suspect are long time allies of Boris Berezovsky. Both men trailed Po-210, supposedly to Berezovsky’s London office. And Berezovsky is not shy when it comes to expressing his desire for a coup d’etat in Russia so he could put his puppet in place and start raking in the Rubles again. So is it any surprise I find Andrei Lugovoi’s recent desire to be the next Russian President a bit too coincidental to Berezosvsky’s biggest hopes?

But Lugovoi, the former Federal Guard Service officer wanted in Britain for the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, soon found himself talking about even higher office, telling journalists less than an hour after his confirmation that he would not rule out running in March’s presidential election.

Berezovsky hinted and hinted and hinted to Lugovoi anonomously during the early days that there could be repurcussions (e.g., assassination of him) if he did not work with authorities. I noticed it early on when Lugovoi’s name first appeared. Contrary to the news now (history rewritten in Orwellian ways), Berezovsky’s group initially DEFENDED Lugovoi of the charges:

ABC News reported that British detectives had identified Mr. Lugovoi as a prime suspect in the poisoning. The report cited an unnamed senior British official.
Alexander Goldfarb, a friend of Mr. Litvinenko’s, said he doubted that Mr. Lugovoi played a role in the killing.
“I frankly doubt that he was the hit man because hit men are usually people hiding in the dark,” Mr. Goldfarb told the AP. “I think it’s one of his associates, I think he was used unawares … Now his life is in danger because he knows a lot.”

They knew Lugovoi – he protects Berezovsky’s daughter while she is in Russia. But more interesting is the apparent signal Goldfarb was sending via the media. This is what I posted when I read this back in December 2006:

Now why would Goldfarb go out in public and defend Lugovoi? We know Lugovoi is an associate of Berezovsky’s and his relationship with Litvinenko was all business (Berezvosky business?). What struck me with this comment by Goldfarb was the clear indication of a possible threat message. Was Goldfarb signalling Lugovoi to implicate others and keep quiet about certain aspects of this case? If there is a Berezovsky angle to all this the fact the Russian police will be handling the questioning is probably more of a threat to any smuggling ring than the UK authorities who seem bent on an assassination theory. Or so they appear.

I had expected the Berezovsky team to cheer the identification of Litvinenko’s killer. And if you listen to them spin these days they swear up and down Lugovoi was always the prime suspect. The fact is the prime suspect in Litvinenko’s mind was supposedly Scaramella, then some with Lugovoi, and only recently has it always been Lugovoi.

We see the same shifting excuses with the Po-210 contamination in Berezovsky’s office. First it was from Litvinenko as he sweated out Po-210 (biologically not possible given the time of the poisoning and the hours it takes for the material to move through the body). Then it was from Lugovoi who supposedly visited a day earlier, until we learned Lugovoi’s flight into London that day came in that evening, getting them to their hotel in time for dinner and some sleep. All we know is Po-210 was in Berezovsky’s office and they admit Litvinenko was there (what time we do not know) and some of it is from him. It may be ALL of it is from him and his visit was before he met Lugovoi (that was the original story line, which has never been refuted or changed in any reporting).

Like I said, the evidence is all over the place. But one thing strikes me as quite odd. After all of this, Berezovsky still may get a long time associate of his into the Kremlin as President. What a coincidence?!