A January 22, 2016 article in the pro-regime Russian website Pravda.ru[1] responds to the British public inquiry into the murder of former Russian spy Aleksandr Litvinenko, which named as the prime suspects former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoy and former Russian military officer Dmitry Kovtun, and stated that Russian President Vladimir Putin "probably approved" Litvinenko's assassination.[2] The article describes the inquiry as part of the west's "Russophobic Bullshit Machine" whose function is to malign Russia and its leaders by accusing them of crimes they did not commit. It suggests that the murder was in fact carried out by the U.S., and states that "the whole of western policy, based upon deals with terrorists and lies, has one objective: to contain Russia through subjugation, subversion and juvenile attempts at humiliation."
The following are excerpts: [3]
Aleksandr
Litvinenko (image: Pravda.ru)
"The wheels and cogs of the Russophobic Bullshit Machine are turning again, this time with spectacular insinuations that President Vladimir Putin is a murderer by proxy
"The hype from the British media has reached hysteria point yet again - the media version of premenstrual tension mixed with postnatal depression-cum-the desire to find an international ogre (a nice big 'them') to justify the 'us' at home. More drum banging, more hype, more Russophobia and more plain, unadulterated and libelous bullshit, which one hopes will be followed with lawsuits to clear the name of Russia's President, [who] towers above the mudslinging guttersnipes manning the British media
"Now the same newspaper [The Guardian] is doing exactly the same thing, insinuating that President Putin ordered the murder of Aleksandr Litvinenko, in publishing the findings of the latest inquiry which concludes that 'the former Russian spy' was 'probably murdered' 'on the personal orders of Vladimir Putin'.
"In legal terms, this is utter, pure and unadulterated nonsense. Either he was murdered on the orders of President Putin or he was not, and this being the case, in the absence of any clear proof, in any civilized state of law, he was not, for the accused is innocent until proven guilty. Where is the evidence linking President Putin to this supposed murder with Polonium 210? In the absence of such, all those who have insinuated the Putin connection with Litvinenko should officially apologize and retract their statements, like Men. Which they won't because they aren't and can't
"An ex-Russian spy with a criminal record, alleged links to the Chechen mafia and close ties to a man wanted by Russian justice, Berezovsky, in whose home it is stated that Polonium-210 was curiously found, dies in a hospital after being poisoned in a hotel with a tunnel under it leading, it was said at the time, to the Embassy of who else but the good old US of A? Wow, what a surprise
"Conclusion: the background of those accusing President Putin, against whom there is not one single shred of evidence, no history of collaboration with terrorists, is dubious to say the least. Quite the contrary, Russia was against the imperialist adventure in Iraq, against the outright rape and robbery and destruction of Libya and sided with the legitimate government of Syria in an anti-terrorist operation which it is conducting with great success, having liquidated more terrorists in 2 months than the west did in 2 years.
"And now the media circus has once again returned to Litvinenko, having got nowhere with Assad's supposed chemical weapons attack on his own troops which would have justified another imperialist venture for the western weapons and energy lobbies - thwarted by Russia - having got nowhere with the lies about President Putin being involved in the downing of civilian aircraft, when terrorists who grew up under the noses of the UK and US in Iraq shot down a Russian passenger airliner in Sinai - having got nowhere with the absurdity of the allegations that Crimea's rejoining Russia was illegal.
"And what possible advantage would President Putin ever have had by ordering two goons (Andrei Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun) over to the UK to murder Litvinenko? With Polonium-210 of all things? Why are these goons still alive if Litvinenko died weeks after he is supposed to have consumed the isotope in tea, and a decade later the UK's two suspects are still alive and kicking?
"Secondly, Litvinenko deserted to the UK in the year 2000. Why kill him in 2006, after he had had six years to spread his lies, justification for his joining the growing list of criminals harbored by London? By 2006 his sell-by date had been surpassed by several years. The notion arises it was not his past that killed him but more probably his future and what he was currently investigating. It was not Russians in Russia.
"Or was the entire Litvinenko story concocted by those who have been concocting lie after barefaced lie for the last two decades, London and Washington, who always wanted Moscow out of the G8 and away from the center of policy-making (remember Russia hosted the G8 meeting in 2006, the year of Litvinenko's death)? And remember his death came one day before the opening of the Helsinki Summit, when the leaders of Russia and the European Union would negotiate new cooperation agreements. In the event, and due to a great extent because of the breaking news of Litvinenko's death, the Summit concentrated more on questions fired at Putin than the issues on the table. As has been the case since. Was the death of Anna Politkovskaya also an orchestration not by Putin but to tarnish the image of Putin, her timely death coinciding exactly with the birthday [of] Russia's President? Moral of the story: Putin would take no advantage from these deaths.
"The whole of western policy, based upon deals with terrorists and lies, has one objective: to contain Russia through subjugation, subversion and juvenile attempts at humiliation. These speak volumes about the accusers, nothing more or less than libelous lying guttersnipes whose pathetic attempts at firing broadsides at the innocent place the accused on a crystal pedestal of superiority."
Endnotes:
[1] Pravda.Ru is a pro-government Russian news and opinion website. According to its former Director General, Vadim Gorshenin, it is the successor of Pravda, the official mouthpiece of the Soviet Union's Communist Party. It was founded by prominent members of Pravda's editorial staff who left it in 1999, and today it is privately owned by Pravda.ru Holding, of which Gorshenin is the head. Its current Director General, Inna Novikova, is Gorshenin's wife.
The Pravda.Ru website publishes in four languages: Russian, English, Italian, Portuguese, and has more than 200,000 visitors daily. According Gorshenin, the English version is the second most popular English-language Russian website, after Russia Today (Pravda.ru, September 16, 2013).
[2] Litvinenkoinquiry.org, January 21, 2016.
[3] Pravdareport.com, January 22, 2016. The author, Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey, is described by Pravda.ru as a journalist and the chief editor of the Portuguese version of Pravda.ru.
