Dec 11 2006

New Litvinenko Theory

Update: Terrible news out of Germany as it appears Kovtun’s ex-wife, her two kids and her current partner werer contamination, and possibly poisoned, by Polonium 210:

Four people in Germany may have ingested the radioactive substance that killed former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, German police said, as German investigators probed the activities of one of his business associates in Hamburg.

The ex-wife and two children of Dmitry Kovtun, who is being investigated for suspected handling of polonium 210, likely had contact with the substance while Kovtun was in Hamburg in late October, police said at a press conference broadcast on N24. A fourth person, Kovtun’s ex-wife’s partner, also tested positive.

German authorities discovered radioactive traces linked to Kovtun that he left while visiting the city days before his Nov. 1 meeting with Litvinenko, who died last month in London from radiation poisoning. Police spokesman Andreas Schoepflin said it was unclear whether Kovtun, who is also currently being treated for radiation poison in Moscow, knowingly handled the material.

The police said it wasn’t yet clear whether the four had merely been contaminated — which doesn’t necessarily represent a critical danger — or had ingested the substance.

There is nothing one can do if poisoned. Let’s all hope they are only contaminated. – end update

I am looking at the fact that Lugovoi and Kovtun may have been contaminated in Moscow from material they handled and thinking I have had this slightly backwards. If Berezovsky is smuggling Polonium 210 into Russia for his Chechen brothers to help him overthrow Russia by force (something he openly claimed was his intention earlier this year) then maybe Lugovoi and Kovtun did not know what they were transporting for Berezovsky and Litvinenko. Maybe the smuggling is coming into the UK via other security company transporters, and the material is being assembled in hotels Lugovoi stays at so he and his Russian buddies can transport the material into Moscow. As I said many times, the transporters were probably never told what they were handling to keep a lid on the purpose for the smuggling. I think this is the case because both Lugovoi and Kovtun have exposed their families and are just as shocked as anyone else about what is going on. If they knew what they were in contact with I am sure they would have taken steps to avoid leaving a trail and risking their children.

If this is true, then Lugovoi and Kovtun would probably be testifying against Litvinenko and Berezovsky – which appears to be a possibility:

Lugovoi told ITAR-Tass that the questioning lasted three hours.

“I gave testimony exclusively as a witness. I was officially informed of that before the interrogation,” ITAR-Tass quoted him as saying after questioning.

Neither the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, which is managing the British investigators’ program in Moscow, nor the British Embassy would reveal any details of the investigation, the AP says.

What is worrisome is whether the Polonium 210 took two paths – on to Moscow and one someplace else still in the UK. All speculation, but the contamination trail makes sense since Kovtun seems to have been exposed in Moscow but did not have the material with him when he went through Hamburg to London. All wild speculation of course – but it does fit all the facts as we know them.

30 responses so far

30 Responses to “New Litvinenko Theory”

  1. clarice says:

    But that map doesn’t show it as far as I can tell. The map may be wrong or the other reports are.

  2. crosspatch says:

    Yes, Clarice, one of them are wrong. I suspect the map was created before the reports about the 16th/17th were known to the person who created it.

  3. crosspatch says:

    Traces of polonium-210 has been found at Parkes Hotel, Mayfair, it was confirmed last night. It means that radiation has been found at all three hotels where Mr Lugovoy had stayed since flying to London on October 16. The Parkes was the first he stayed at.

    The radioactive isotope has also been found at Risc Management, a security firm in Cavendish Place, visited by Litvinenko with Mr Lugovoy and Mr Kovtun on October 17.

    Link

  4. Carol_Herman says:

    It’s the “money supply.

    That’s the HOW it got done. Someone clever saw to it that the currency got sprayed.

    Next question? Would the bills have been used?

    Who’d be threated by getting currency? Not the ex-wife. Better than “tea cups.” Lethal only to THE person who knew how to contaminate the money.

    Not necessarily “inside.” Don’t forget you not only have carriers. You have to, at some point, “collect” the stash. And, as long as all the money was there; everyone counting this stuff was spreading it around.

    Similar to cocaine? You know how they say most of all American Jackson’s and Benjamin’s are loaded with cocaine residue.

    Makes for less of a mystery, on how you get bad guys to cooperate in the “distribution.”

    Now. How does the residue flake to lead? Does that mean the particles cause themselves to get heavier as their half-life plays into the disappearance of the radioactivity?

    The other question. If Polonium isn’t “stable.” Then it has an expiration date, after which it wouldn’t work, if it did get used in an exploding suitcase. Or car.

  5. Carol_Herman says:

    We are also assuming that the polonium was the STUFF carried. Because Litvenenko referred to it. As the things the doctors should look for, when they were testing him. And, coming up empty.

    But what if Litvenenko DIDN’T know? How able was he to talk? Wasn’t he getting sicker and sicker?

    What if the nuclear stuff being exported is different than the “loot?” If all the loot is for is to kill the black marketeers?

    Throw out polonium as the “export product,” and what else could have been in play, here?

  6. crosspatch says:

    I am having trouble believing it is possible to spray money on currency and have Litvinenko ingest the amount that he had in him unless he used it as a teabag or had a habit of chewing on money.

    I do believe he was poisoned in that bar meeting. But I also believe that Lugovoi et al did it because they were smuggling goods for Litvinenko and learned they were contaminated.

  7. crosspatch says:

    OOps, ment … spray polonium on money …

  8. crosspatch says:

    As for cost of polonium, it would be “free” to the smugglers if the customer refused delivery because it was contaminated/leaking and the last two shipments had come up “short” and the “customer” was complaining of contamination.

    So if it is smuggling, look for more sick people to be showing up in hospitals.

  9. crosspatch says:

    Kovtun’s house had to be pretty “dirty” in order to make his hair fall out.

  10. clarice says:

    Yes. I can’t figure out if it was the reporter, the translation or what..but it sure made it seem as if Kovtun made up a goofy alibi for the loss of his hair.