The Litvinenko File by Martin Sixsmith is released in the UK on Monday.

It’s one of what is sure to be a long line of books about Litvinenko over the coming months, although probably one of the more interesting ones, if only because its author actually bothered to travel to Moscow and interview people who are both relevant and important.

An excerpt of the Litvinenko File appeared in yesterday’s Sunday Times. The most interesting part, I thought, was his interview with a group of officials from the Prosecutor General’s office:

After 20 minutes we seemed to be getting nowhere. I decided to be a little provocative. “What about the new laws of July 2006?” I asked. One of them allows the president to use the Russian secret services to eliminate “extremists” in Russia and on foreign territory. And another expands the definition of “extrem-ism” to include anyone “libellously critical of the Russian authorities”?

“It looks like a pretty clear mandate to go out and kill people like Litvinenko, doesn’t it?” I suggested.

[...] “Look, Martin, do you really think we’d bother assassinating a nobody like Litvinenko? Someone who left the country God knows how long ago? Who was no threat to us and didn’t have any secrets to betray? . . . He just wasn’t important enough. He didn’t know any secrets that would be a reason for liquidating him . . . Do you think we would have mounted such a special operation to eliminate him . . . with polonium that costs the earth? That we would have spent so much money on him? My God, we could have used the money to increase pensions here at home. If we’d needed to eliminate Litvinenko, we would have done it ages ago.”

I think I might actually go and buy this book!

Tagged as: Domestic