Russian media ignore spook’s poisoning

MOSCOW – The poisoning in London of a former Russian spy and critic of the Kremlin was ignored by almost all Russia’s newspapers yesterday.

The poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko was not reported by the major circulation papers Komsomolskaya Pravda and Izvestia, although the Gazeta newspaper reproduced a report from Britain’s Sunday Telegraph. The only paper to carry its own report was the Kommersant broadsheet, which fielded opinion from parliament deputies and former secret service members, as well as quoting the Russian emigre Boris Berezovsky after he visited Litvinenko in hospital on Friday.Litvinenko, a former lieutenant colonel in Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) fell ill after a November 1 meeting in a central London sushi bar with a contact who purportedly had information on the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.”Now the crisis time has come and if Alexander gets through the next few days, everything will be alright,” Berezovsky said after visiting Litvinenko.”He’s in a terrible state.His hair has fallen out….His internal organs could fail at any moment.”But there was no sympathy from Gennady Gudkov, a parliament deputy and former FSB colonel, who accused Berezovsky of staging the poisoning.”I would advise Litvinenko to stay off the counterfeit vodka.Boris Abramovich (Berezovsky), although a talented director, won’t manage to pull off this performance,” Gudkov told Kommersant.Oleg Kalugin, a former major general in the Soviet KGB, pinned the blame squarely on Russian secret services, which he said had been given carte blanche by recent legal changes allowing them to fight terrorism abroad.Nampa-AFPThe only paper to carry its own report was the Kommersant broadsheet, which fielded opinion from parliament deputies and former secret service members, as well as quoting the Russian emigre Boris Berezovsky after he visited Litvinenko in hospital on Friday.Litvinenko, a former lieutenant colonel in Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) fell ill after a November 1 meeting in a central London sushi bar with a contact who purportedly had information on the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.”Now the crisis time has come and if Alexander gets through the next few days, everything will be alright,” Berezovsky said after visiting Litvinenko.”He’s in a terrible state.His hair has fallen out….His internal organs could fail at any moment.”But there was no sympathy from Gennady Gudkov, a parliament deputy and former FSB colonel, who accused Berezovsky of staging the poisoning.”I would advise Litvinenko to stay off the counterfeit vodka.Boris Abramovich (Berezovsky), although a talented director, won’t manage to pull off this performance,” Gudkov told Kommersant.Oleg Kalugin, a former major general in the Soviet KGB, pinned the blame squarely on Russian secret services, which he said had been given carte blanche by recent legal changes allowing them to fight terrorism abroad.Nampa-AFP