The Kremlin’s London Hit Squad Recommended reading for Donald Trump on Vladimir Putin.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-kremlins-london-hit-squad-1453420972
It has long been an open secret that Russian agents fatally poisoned Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy turned Kremlin critic, at a London hotel in November 2006. On Thursday a formal British inquiry went further. “Taking full account of all the evidence and analysis available to me,” wrote retired High Court Judge Robert Owen, “I find that the FSB operation to kill Mr. Litvinenko was probably approved by [then FSB Director Nikolai] Patrushev and President Putin.”
Litvinenko, a veteran of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), fled Russia for Britain in 2000, after going public with evidence that Russian officials abused the state security apparatus for corrupt purposes. This infuriated Vladimir Putin, then director of the FSB and soon to be the Kremlin’s paramount leader.
In exile Litvinenko published a book accusing the Russian leader of having staged terrorist bombings in Moscow in 1999 as a pretext to reignite the war in Chechnya. (See David Satter nearby.) Litvinenko also likely cooperated with British intelligence. In July 2006 Russian legislators enacted a law authorizing the government to target state enemies abroad. An unofficial Kremlin hit list began circulating in Russian circles. Litvinenko’s name was on it.
Five months later Litvinenko met with Andrei Lugovoi, a former colleague from the FSB, and Dmitry Kovtun, a Russian businessman alleged to have connections to the FSB, at a luxury London hotel. Three weeks later Litvinenko was dead, the victim of a radioactive substance polonium-210. Traces of polonium were found nearly everywhere Messrs. Lugovoi and Kovtun went, including their hotel rooms and an airplane seat. British prosecutors charged Mr. Lugovoi with murder. Both men deny any part in Litvinenko’s death, and Moscow refuses to extradite them. Mr. Lugovoi is now a member of the Russian Parliament.
For years London slow-pedaled a formal investigation, though the polonium could easily have poisoned hundreds of innocent bystanders. Home Secretary Theresa May conceded in 2013 that Britain’s “international relations” have been “a factor in the government’s decision-making.” Mr. Owen’s special inquiry was launched in summer 2014, days after Russian-backed rebels shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine.
Now, after testimony from more than 60 witnesses—including several in secret—Mr. Owen has concluded that the operation to kill Litvinenko couldn’t have been launched without approval from the highest levels of the Russian state.
The accusation can’t be fully proved barring regime change in the Kremlin, but David Cameron should take the charge seriously. No British Prime Minister can allow a foreign leader to treat London as a playground for his hit squads and radioactive weapons.
The immediate expulsion of all known FSB agents from Britain would be a place to start, and Mr. Cameron could rally European leaders to expand and extend sanctions on Russia. Britain could also enact a law on the model of America’s Magnitsky Act, imposing travel bans and asset seizures on anyone connected to Litvinenko’s murder. Mr. Putin should never again be allowed to set foot on British soil. If such measures adversely affect the real-estate market in Mayfair, Highgate or other outposts of ill-gotten Russian wealth in the U.K., so be it.
Mr. Putin is now attempting an image makeover, portraying himself as a responsible problem-solver in hotspots such as Syria, while encouraging sympathetic European politicians such as France’s Marine Le Pen to talk up Russian interests.
Donald Trump could also stand to read the Owen findings. “In all fairness to Putin, you’re saying he killed people,” the presidential candidate said last month. “I haven’t seen that. I don’t know that he has.”
The real nature of Mr. Putin and his regime were apparent long before Litvinenko’s death. With Mr. Owen’s report, not even Mr. Trump can have any excuse for turning a blind eye.
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