Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Death of a Dissident The Poisoning of and the Return of the KGB by Alex Goldfar Wanderinglibrarian’s Weblog. Death of a dissident—The wandering continues. Death of a Dissident: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB. By Alex Goldfarb with Marina Litvinenko. Goldfarb, A. &. (2007). Death of a dissident: The poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the return of the KGB. New York: Free Press. This is an amazing tale told by Goldfarb and the widow of Alexander “Sasha” Litvinenko, Marina Litvinenko. Sasha was a KGB operative working to crack down on organized crime. When the Soviet Union (USSR) dissolved, he then ended up working for the FSB (what the KGB became) doing similar work. He ended up being sent into Chechnya and saw firsthand the destruction wrecked by the Russian army. Sasha started to question what was going on within the FSB. At this time Yeltsin was struggling to hold on to and encourage democracy in Russia and to seek someone to take over as president who would continue the liberal changes and encourage the fledgling democracy. One thing led to another and Vladimir Putin was suggested as head of the FSB. Putin had been a KGB member for years. Sasha and some others started to investigate corruption within the FSB, but when they brought it to the attention of the top staff, including Putin, they were basically told to forget it or face the consequences. Sasha didn’t stop. He went public with his allegations that he and other FSB officers were ordered to kill Boris Berezovsky (high powered oligarch who was supporting democracy) and Mikhail Trepashkin, and ended up in prison. Later he was able to flee with his wife and son and ended up in London. From there he worked with a group of expatriates to try and open the western worlds eyes to what was going on in Russian politics and what Putin was doing. A number of things led to the (which like the Iraq war for Bush helped him get into and stay in office as president). One in particular was a series of bombings of Moscow apartments. Sasha and the others were able to find evidence that the FSB themselves was most likely responsible for the bombings. Suddenly, people associated with the investigation into the bombings and those who were activating for peace in Chechnya started to be assassinated. Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya was a journalist at Novaya Gazeta and was assassinated in 2006 (shot while carrying groceries in her apartment elevator). Yuri Petrovich Schekochihin, a Duma member and journalist, was poisoned in 2003. Mikhail Ivanovich Trepashkin was a former FSB officer and lawyer and was arrested in 2003. In May 2006 reported that Trepashkin was being denied medical treatment. He suffers from asthma and was sent to the hospital for treatment but then forcibly removed by prison wardens. Finally in 2007 USA Today reported that Trepashkin was finally released from prison in Nizhny Tagil to Yekaterinburg, Russia. Trepashkin also reported that he and others were asked in 2002 to kill Litvinenko and Berezovsky. Trepashkin warned them about the hit squad and upon release from prison, stated that it was the Kremlin that had Litvinenko killed. Litvinenko was poisoned on November 1 2006 and died November 23 rd . At first doctors thought he just had a case of food poisoning. Then they thought it was Thallium poisoning. Actually it was Polonium-210 a radioactive substance that is highly lethal in very, very small doses that killed Litvinenko. This is a substance that only a very small number of places can manufacture. In fact, 97% of the world’s Polonium-210 comes from Russia. The trails all lead to Andrei Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun as the ones who brought the Polonium-210 out of Russian and to London to kill Litvinenko. It is possible that there was a third man as well. This book is quite an eye opener into Russian politics and politics in general. It is also a lesson on why wars are started and why, when groups on both sides want peace, wars continue. Power over media, power over police, control of all secret services, power over regional governance, can all lead down a very dangerous road. The masses of citizens of the world need to start to look at what is going on and Goldfarb’s book provides an amazing inside view of only one time period in one government—but it is a very powerful view. Cookie Consent and Choices. NPR’s sites use cookies, similar tracking and storage technologies, and information about the device you use to access our sites (together, “cookies”) to enhance your viewing, listening and user experience, personalize content, personalize messages from NPR’s sponsors, provide social media features, and analyze NPR’s traffic. This information is shared with social media, sponsorship, analytics, and other vendors or service providers. See details. You may click on “ Your Choices ” below to learn about and use cookie management tools to limit use of cookies when you visit NPR’s sites. You can adjust your cookie choices in those tools at any time. If you click “ Agree and Continue ” below, you acknowledge that your cookie choices in those tools will be respected and that you otherwise agree to the use of cookies on NPR’s sites. Death of a Dissident : The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB. The first reports seemed absurd. A Russian dissident, formerly an employee of the KGB and its successor, the FSB, had seemingly been poisoned in a London hotel. As Alexander Litvinenko's condition worsened, however, and he was transferred to hospital and placed under armed guard, the story took a sinister turn. On 23 November 2006, Litvinenko died, apparently from polonium-210 radiation poisoning. He himself, in a dramatic statement from his deathbed, accused his former employers at the Kremlin of being responsible for his murder. Who was Alexander Litvinenko? What had happened in Russia since the end of the Cold War to make his life there untenable, and even in severe jeopardy in Britain? How did he really die, and who killed him? In his spokesman and close friend, Alex Goldfarb, and widow Marina, we have two people who know more than anyone about the real Sasha Litvinenko, and about his murder. Their riveting book sheds astonishing light not just on these strange and troubling events but also on the biggest crisis in relations with Russia since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Death of a Dissident : The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB. The assassination of former Russian intelligence officer Alexander "Sasha" Litvinenko in November 2006 -- poisoned by the rare radioactive element polonium -- caused an international sensation. Within a few short weeks, the fit forty-three-year-old lay gaunt, bald, and dying in a hospital, the victim of a "tiny nuclear bomb." Suspicions swirled around Russia's FSB, the successor to the KGB, and the Putin regime. Traces of polonium radiation were found in Germany and on certain airplanes, suggesting a travel route from Russia for the carriers of the fatal poison. But what really happened? What did Litvinenko know? And why was he killed? The full story of Sasha Litvinenko's life and death is one that the Kremlin does not want told. His closest friend, Alex Goldfarb, and his widow, Marina, are the only two people who can tell it all, from firsthand knowledge, with dramatic scenes from Moscow to London to Washington. Death of a Dissident reads like a political thriller, yet its story is more fantastic and frightening than any novel. Ever since 1998, when Litvinenko denounced the FSB for ordering him to assassinate tycoon Boris Berezovsky, he had devoted his life to exposing the FSB's darkest secrets. After a dramatic escape to London with Goldfarb's assistance, he spent six years, often working with Goldfarb, investigating a widening series of scandals. Oligarchs and journalists have been assassinated. Ukrainian presidential candidate Viktor Yuschenko was poisoned on the campaign trail. The war in Chechnya became unspeakably harsh on both sides. Sasha Litvinenko investigated all of it, and he denounced his former employers in no uncertain terms for their dirty deeds. Death of a Dissident opens a window into the dark heart of the Putin Kremlin. With its strong-arm tactics, tight control over the media, and penetration of all levels of government, the old KGB is back with a vengeance. Sasha Litvinenko dedicated his life to exposing this truth. It took his diabolical murder for the world to listen. 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