Alexandr Litvenenko

[LeedsRhinos]

If it turns out that Putin and his Cronies were behind the radiation poisoning of Alexander Litvenenko then this means that the Russians have used a Nuclear weapon on Mainland Britain. What are the possible consequences of this?

[chitchat]

I doubt anything will ever come of it becuase Putin will always deny his involvement in it and it would be difficult to prove. Blair is unlikely to start anything over this either, I dont even think he would raise a question over it. They will all sit back waiting for it to blow over which in time it will.

Very unfair for the family who wont see justice done and the rest of decent mankind, but people who commit and or instruct these crimes dont care anyway.

[kwicky]

The UK are treating this very seriously and have COBRA meetings in Whitehall where representatives of all the concerned departments plus the Foreign Office have met and is sometimes chaired by the PM. Even if the FSB (the Russian Secret Service) carried this out they are unlikely to admit it. It is like asking MI5 or MI6 to come clean on various operations.

[matt66]

There are no consequences. The Uk govt will not even ask the Russians for any explanations. As they say in the spy world ***** happens. In the future maybe we might want to kill our defectors somewhere in Russia, who knows John kelly might have wanted to escape to russia before he was stopped here.

[buildersmate]

It's not a radioactive weapon (fissile material), its a radioactive element that is decaying naturally, the same as any other radioactive element. Just rather an rare one that produces a lot of alpha particles. Whilst a terrible thing to do, its not gamma radiation.

[kwicky]

Matt I would not jump to conclusions just yet. You can buy this lethal substance for $65 from an American nuclear power station. Is it a frame-up?

http://www.unitednuclear.com/isotopes.htm

[kwicky]

The web site that sells Polonium 210 has just put a disclaimer on its web site saying it is impossible to carry out any killing with what they supply.