
The assassination of former Russian intelligence officer Alexander "Sasha" Litvinenko in November 2006 -- poisoned via the infrequent radioactive aspect polonium -- brought on a global sensation. inside of a couple of brief weeks, the healthy forty-three-year-old lay gaunt, bald, and demise in a health center, the sufferer of a "tiny nuclear bomb." Suspicions swirled round Russia's FSB, the successor to the KGB, and the Putin regime. strains of polonium radiation have been present in Germany and on yes airplanes, suggesting a commute path from Russia for the vendors of the deadly poison. yet what rather occurred? What did Litvinenko understand? And why used to be he killed?
the total tale of Sasha Litvinenko's existence and demise is one who the Kremlin doesn't wish advised. His closest pal, Alex Goldfarb, and his widow, Marina, are the one those that can inform all of it, from firsthand wisdom, with dramatic scenes from Moscow to London to Washington. "Death of a Dissident" reads like a political mystery, but its tale is extra impressive and scary than any novel.
Ever because 1998, while Litvinenko denounced the FSB for ordering him to assassinate magnate Boris Berezovsky, he had committed his lifestyles to exposing the FSB's darkest secrets and techniques. After a dramatic get away to London with Goldfarb's tips, he spent six years, frequently operating with Goldfarb, investigating a widening sequence of scandals. Oligarchs and newshounds were assassinated. Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yuschenko was once poisoned at the crusade path. The battle in Chechnya turned unspeakably harsh on either side. Sasha Litvinenko investigated it all, and he denounced his former employers in no doubtful phrases for his or her soiled deeds.
"Death of a Dissident" opens a window into the darkish middle of the Putin Kremlin. With its strong-arm strategies, tight keep watch over over the media, and penetration of all degrees of presidency, the outdated KGB is again with a vengeance. Sasha Litvinenko committed his lifestyles to exposing this fact. It took his diabolical homicide for the realm to pay attention.