The plot thickens

I hope none of you had lunch or drinks in any of the places frequented by the late Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko at the beginning of the month. If you think you did I suggest that you ring the authorities.

What is clear so far is that Mr. Litvinenko was poisoned with a fairly rare and incredibly toxic radioactive isotope known as polonium 210. The ingestion of even a tiny amount of this substance leads to almost certain death.

What is unclear is who killed him and why. Suspects include:

• Mr. Litvinenko himself although his motivation is unclear unless the death were accidental.
• Russian security forces under the direction of President Vladimir Putin
• Russian security forces loyal to but not under the direction of Putin
• Russian opposition forces, inside or outside the security services, who wish to damage Putin by implicating him in this crime

Will we ever know? Probably not with absolute certainty. (Can we say we know who killed Jack or Bobby Kennedy with absolute certainty?)

What is clear, between this death and the recent assassination of Anna Politkovskaya, is that all is not well in the Russian Federation.

In the meantime we are about to welcome Russia, with open arms, into the WTO. Oh well, that's only business. It's not personal.