Alexander Litvinenko didn't mince words. On Oct. 19, at a public meeting in
London, he introduced himself as a former Russian kgb officer, and proceeded to
accuse President Vladimir Putin of sanctioning the murder two weeks earlier of a
crusading Russian journalist, Anna Politkovskaya. Litvinenko, who fell out with
his erstwhile employers after claiming they had ordered him to assassinate Boris
Berezovsky, an oligarch and high Russian official of the Yeltsin years, now
exiled, had met Politkovskaya on several occasions. At one of their last
meetings, he said, she had told him about threats she'd been receiving. "She
asked, 'Do you think they can kill me?'" Litvinenko told a rapt audience at the
Frontline Club, a British organization that promotes independent journalism. "I
told her quite frankly: Yes, they can." Litvinenko ended with his accusation. "I
know that a journalist of her stature could not be touched without sanction from
the Russian President himself," he said. "Anna was a political opponent, and
this is why she was killed."
And then Litvenko was killed.
