Word: litvinenko
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Alexander Litvinenko killed in a spectacularly unusual way, poisoned with a tiny dose of the radioactive element polonium-210. But the routine of the former KGB agent on the day he ingested the stuff--a shuttle among elegant hotels, a sushi bar and exclusive offices in the heart of London--would be familiar to any number of affluent Russians who make the city their home. London is 31% foreign born, profiting from successive waves of the ultrarich--American bankers, Arab sheiks, Hong Kong Chinese. Now the Litvinenko case is making some Brits wonder whether the city has turned into Moscow...
...Londongrad" is abuzz with controversy in the wake of Litvinenko's ghoulish Nov. 23 demise and his deathbed accusation that his murder was ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin's denial of involvement was complicated by the discovery that former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar, a Putin critic, had fallen ill in Ireland the day after Litvinenko died. Gaidar has since tested negative for radiation poisoning. But Litvinenko's wife and an Italian security analyst who met him at the sushi restaurant the day he fell ill have tested positive for radioactivity...
...compete. Boris Berezovsky, a close ally of former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, made his $1.5 billion mainly in cars and oil and was instrumental in making Putin the heir to Yeltsin. But his major preoccupation now is his loathing of the Russian President--one reason he employed Litvinenko, who accused Putin of blowing up apartment buildings in Moscow to aid his presidential campaign and of ordering assassinations...
Whether Londoners will tolerate the importing of secret agents and weird poisons is another question. But with so much money sloshing around, Russians are bound to keep coming to Londongrad. Although the Litvinenko death has created a chill among government critics in Russia, London's go-go exiles don't seem too worried. Zograb Nalbandian, London correspondent for the Russian newspaper Trud, says he has spoken to a dozen members of the Russian diaspora. "No one thinks the regime is going to run after them here." That may be true. But it still might be wise for some of London...
...really keep things under wraps. It's always like somebody's going to get shot. There's always that kind of a payoff. I looked for more original ways that somebody gets their comeuppance. Kind of like what happened in London the other day with [poisoned Russian spy Alexander] Litvinenko...