Alexander Litvinenko, who accused Vladimir Putin of a variety of crimes, was poisoned. It wasn’t one of those quick poisonings such as you get from, say, strychnine. No, he sickened and died over the course of a long month, losing his hair and suffering severe vomiting, diarrhea, organ failure, and then death. Litvinenko died in a London hospital.
It seems that the British, who had declined fully to investigate so as not to offend the Russian government – though they did establish that he died from Polonium-210 poisoning — are reopening the case in the wake of the Malaysia Airlines mass murder.
Marina Litvinenko, the widow, is gratified: ”No matter how strong and powerful you are, truth will out in the end.”
We’ll see. The British government has until now agreed to keep quiet about what it knew so as not to offend Putin. I list some of the other Putin critics in my most recent column. Spoiler alert: Don’t sell life insurance to those who tell the truth about him.