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Read other letters about this article
Why him?
-because of the book about the FSB
-because of his investigations into that journalist's death
-because clearly in exchange for his asylum in the UK, he was helping the UK intelligence services on a regular basis
Why now?
-because he was hot on the journalist's death trail
-most importantly, because he just got UK citizenship in October 2006, so there was no longer any hope whatsoever taht he would extradited to Russia, for which Russia has been asking since he defected.
Why polonium-210?
-whoever shot the journalist did a bad job. the whole thing was all over the world press. No more shootings.
-Russia had already used poisons before -- they tried to poison the Ukranian presidential candidate, and it didn't work.
-as for the way polonium kills someone, perhaps there wasn't much evidence on how long it takes to kill someone, perhaps the fact that he didn't die instantly was unexpected.
-but it is easy conceal, thanks to its short alpha rays
-and you only need a small amount, possibly in a spray
Why not the Mossad?
-Why would the Mossad want to hurt Putin? Because he's helping states like Iran, which poses grave dangers for Israel. But Israel must think past 1-step revenge. If it makes Putin look bad, it will only push Putin further away from his Western allies and into the loving arms of places like Libya, North Korea, Venezueala, Cuba, and Iran, which is definitely not good for Israel.
Who benefits from making Putin look bad and alienating Russia?
-in the long term, no one really. Russia is big and powerful -- alienating it from the Western world won't help any of the complex probelms, like terrorism and weapons proliferation, that we face today.
-Iran benefits. Maybe it was Iran. But i highly doubt it.
