Quote Originally Posted by Sarmatian View Post
Barring examples of quartering people for disobeying their divinely ordained rulers in the middle ages, there really aren't.

If the idea was to send a message, why use Polonium? Supposedly, Polonium is untraceable and Russian agents weren't aware that some new piece of technology in the west can detect Polonium. If you want to send a message to would-be traitors, you generally don't want it to look like the traitor died a natural death.

If the idea was just to exact revenge on him for badmouthing Putin... Well, that's a really thin argument. Thousands of people badmouthed him. Litvinenko was generally unknown to the wider public. Why choose him over everybody else and divert massive amount of attention to him? Seven years after he fled? It doesn't really make sense.

Since he already blew the whistle, there was also no reason to kill him. The deed's been done. Nothing more to gain except additional bad rep.

It's all pretty thin, and since there's absolutely zero evidence linking this to Putin and since British police didn't release any serious information, this is really tinfoil hat territory.
From wikipedia;
A week after the assassination [of Anna Politkovskaya], Alexander Litvinenko accused Putin of sanctioning the murder. Two weeks after this statement, Litvinenko was poisoned with radioactive polonium. Two days before his death on 24 November 2006, he wrote a statement, in case he "does not make it". He said:

"Name the bastard. Anna Politkovskaya did not do it, so I will, for both of us.[36] You may succeed in silencing one man but the howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Mr Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life. May God forgive you for what you have done, not only to me but to beloved Russia and its people".

According to some reports, Litvinenko tried to investigate Politkovskaya's death.[37][38] He was also writing a book about FSB activities including concentration camps in Chechnya. In that regard, he had frequent contacts with Politkovskaya.[39] Litvinenko's poisoning was remarkably similar to the thallium poisoning of KGB defector Nikolai Khokhlov,[40] whom Politkovskaya had interviewed for Novaya Gazeta.[41]
CR