A tale of spies, money and power

I just completed reading Alex Goldfarb's Death of a Dissident. It chronicles the life and series of events leading to the dramatic poisoning of Alexander 'Sasha' Litvinenko, an ex-KGB Colonel who defected to the UK and sought asylum as part of the growing number of Russian emigres.

Sasha died of radioactive poisoning, the first such case of a "nuclear terrorist attack", when his food was allegedly tainted by a FSB (the new KGB in post-Soviet Russia) operative under the directives of Moscow. His death led to a public health scare when the British authorities had to retrace Sasha's route after the alleged poisoning, and sealed off large swathes of London pending fear of the spread of radioactive toxins to the public.

What is more controversial is that the book provided a number of insights into the murkey world of Russian politics, the modus operandi of the KGB and FSB, the personalities in Sasha's life, and the extent of persecution of dissidents pursued by the Russian state under former President Putin (who is now the current Prime Minister under President Dimitri Medvedev).

1. Admidst the chaos of the post-Soviet collapse, the cash-strapped KGB and other Russian intelligence services "sold" their services to the highest bidders - mostly oligarchs and bureaucrats who enriched themselves from the privatisation of state property - who engaged in high-level assasinations and intense tuft wars. This was the start of the erosion of the professionalism of the intelligence services and their unquestioned loyalty to their political masters.

2. Reformers and oligarchs (who had the financial backing), Communists (who retained popular support) and Conservatives (who had the support of the military and intelligence services) competed with each other for influence over Yeltsin, Russia's first post-Soviet President who was an avowed democrat and reformer. The battle lines blurred further as the reformers (under the leadership of Chubais, the chief architect of the privatisation programme) and oligarchs clashed over the role of the business community in the political leadership of Russia. They were supported at various times by factions within the Communists and intelligence services.

3. Through a series of round robin clashes and the rise and fall of many personalities who briefly warmed the seat of the Prime Minister, Putin emerged as the eventual successor of the ailing Yeltsin who favoured him for his loyalty and democratic tendencies. Putin won the 2000 elections handsomely, backed by oligarchs like Boris Berezovsky who campaigned endlessly for him and supported him with his vast and independent media empire. Boris became Putin's mentor and was convinced that Putin was the right successor to continue Yeltin's mission to democratize Russian politics.

4. However, Boris and the reformers were to be sorely disappointed as Putin turned out to be a hawk. He installed hardliners in his administration, centralised state control over the military, economy and intelligence services, persecuted the oligarchs and alleged opponents of the state, reversed Yeltsin's privatisation programme, and clamped down on independent media in Russia. Threatened by the regime, Boris and Sasha were forced to join the long list of emigres abroad as Putin consolidated his hold over Russia.

5. There were also allegations that the infamous Moscow apartment bombings in 1999 (dubbed Russia's 9'11) that sparked the second Chechen War - which helped cement Putin's popularity - was actually perpetuated by the FSB who wanted to see Chechnya brought into the fold of the old Russian empire. Other allegations included that the 2002 fateful siege of the Moscow theatre by Chechen militants that left almost 150 people dead, was actually planned by the FSB to cultivate a climate of fear and justify continued military involvement in Chechnya despite staggering losses suffered by the Russian military with little end to the war. The state also persecuted and assasinated Duma representatives, journalists and human-rights activitists who opposed the Chechen War.

6. Russian dissidents even accused the world of looking the other way as the Russians committed countless atrocities in Chechnya. For instance, the Bush administration was especially eager to cultivate relations with Putin, seeing in him "an ally who can be trusted", and dismissed the Chechen War as a domestic Russian campaign against "home-grown terrorism". Boris and his dissident counterparts attempted to tell "the truth" about the regime and waged an intense PR and media campaign against Putin. They were resisted by the Kremlin who engaged in their own counter-campaign of misinformation, and attempted unsuccessfully to repatriate Russian emigres whom they accused of subversion and disloyalty.

As the author pointed put, Sasha's death pointed to the extent of Russia's failed democratic experiment since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Putin's zealousness in eliminating his opponents with the domination that the FSB had over the Russian government. More importantly, it provided a glimpse of the intense power struggle behind the scenes of Russian politics, and the type of regime that the world has to deal with for the foreseeable future.

The future path of development in Russia and the accuracy of these insights are best left to readers to decide for themselves. However, one thing is certain: that the book will take you on a journey to see how deep the rabbit-hole really goes.