Some reading today found me some interesting info on Mr Litvinenko, Putin, and freedom of the press in Russia.<\/p>\n
“There’s something very un-English about murderers who dispatch their victims too flamboyantly.”<\/a> A rather portentous Times article from May 2005 about Litvinenko, and the events that led up to his seeking asylum in the UK. The article also links to various sources for further information.<\/p>\n An interesting and somewhat disturbing article<\/a> on Putin, the Russian Media, Litvinenko, and the recently assasinated journalist Anna Politkovskaya.<\/p>\n Explosions in apartment blocks in September 1999 – two in Moscow and two in Volgodonsk – killed nearly 300 people and prompted Russia to sent its troops to Chechnya. The FSB claimed the blasts were the work of Achimez Gochiyayev, who had ties with the Chechen leader Khattab. In July 2002 photos of the pair together<\/a> were released by the FSB as proof of a conspiracy. The pictures appeared a day after a dissident FSB agent, Alexander Litvinenko, presented evidence which he said proved Mr Gochiyayev’s innocence. He claimed instead that the FSB was behind the blasts.<\/p>\n