It's a scenario one might have expected during the height of the Cold War..
Alexander Litvinyenko, a former Colonel in the FSG, the former KGB, was buried yesterday in a special casket, one designed to shield against radioactivity..
Litvinyenko, a defector to Britain some years ago, blamed the Kremlin for his death, alleging his anti-Putin stance had prompted the Russian government to poison him..
British police have traced Litvinyenko's actions around the first of last month, and have found traces of Polonium 210 scattered throughout most of the places he visited before, and after the 1st of November.. some of those he came in contact with have been tested, and found to be mildly contaminated. His wife and children are among those who are now hospitalised..
Then came the development. that one of the men he met, a Russian businessman named Dmitry Kovtun, is also contaminated, as is his wife, and as is their home in Hamburg, Germany..
There have been several theories concerning who might be behind these poisonings.. the Kremlin denies all association.. but there is a criminal element of no small scale operating in Russia these days, which Litvinyenko was highly critical of, and they seem to be the likely suspects in the eyes of investigators at this point..
They are suggesting that there is now trafficking in radioactive materials, by this criminal element, throughout Europe..and indeed, with Britain, Germany now involved in this investigation.. and the distinct possibility of Dmitry Kovun being fatally exposed.. this takes on exceedingly sinister overtones..
If these materials are being traded by Russian criminal elements, it would be for the express purpose of undermining the Putin government, especially in light of Russia passing a law which allows it's operatives to carry out executions of foreign nationals outside Russia itself..
Russia, under Putin, has begun to revert to conditions that existed before the liberalisation process began, and the movement towards Capitalism..
Any association with these poisonings, could cause irreperable damage to Russia's international standings, and have immediate and catastrophic effects on it's trade agreements and economy..
One tend to lean towards the theory that this trafficking of Polonium 210, which used to be known as Radium F, is being orchestrated by those outside Russian law.. a definative attack on the opening of Russia to Westernisation..
Thus, it falls to the Russian Government itself, to have a massive crackdown on it's own criminal element.. and while that may lead to the downfall of many who are actually in government, a thorough housecleaning would seem to be in order..
Just what we need in these times of political uncertainty, encompassing virtually all Western governments, not to mention the Middle East.. is the appearance of assassination by radioactive exposure..
It appears, that while a trail is left, like radioactive bread crumbs, to the assassin.. it will be a far more difficult task to identify the source..
And for, if nothing else, the continuation of the international stabilisation process, this source must be found, and eliminated.
Quickly.