Quote Originally Posted by Pannonian
I couldn't have cared less if they'd just knifed or shot Litvinenko, or made a similarly clean kill.
Well, I would care. If this is Russian state terrorism we have a major problem on our hands.

Imagine the outcry if Teheran started killing its dissidents in the West in such a high-profile manner. The casus belli would be build within weeks. In the case of Russia, what do we do?

The Telegraph story is ambiguous, though. It could be that the version they were given by 'Whitehall sources' truly represents the consensus at Whitehall. But the 'leak' could also be an attempt to pressure the Russians into cooperating more with Britsh security services, lest Whitehall is forced to conclude that this was Russian state terrorism.