Boris Volodarsky is a former captain of the GRU Spetsnaz and currently an independent intelligence analyst, a member of the World Association of International Studies (Hoover Institution, Stanford University) and has written a number of articles on intelligence for the "Wall Street Journal." He lives in England.
"Here, for the fan of murder thrillers and modern history alike, is
a cracking good read. In brilliant light we see what lay for nearly
a century behind the London polonium poisoning of British citizen
Alexander Litvinenko, former Russian. With original research guided
by his insider's eye and scholarly care, Boris Volodarsky recounts
scores of murders. Assassination emerges as state policy, as
institutionalized bureacracy, as day-to-day routine, as laboratory
science, as a branch of medicine researching ways not to stave off
death but to deliver it in apparently innocent or accidental forms,
and as engineering technology, devising ever-new devices to meet
each new requirement, from umbrella tips and cigarette cases and
rolled-up newspapers -- to Litvinenko's teacup." Tennent H. Bagley,
former CIA chief of Soviet Bloc counterintelligence.
"Library Journal"In September 2004, Ukrainian presidential
candidate Viktor Yushchenko was poisoned by dioxin, which caused
severe illness and disfigurement. In October 2006, journalist Anna
Politkovskaya, a critic of President Vladimir Putin and his
handling of the Chechen conflict, was shot to death in Moscow. In
November 2006, former KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned
by polonium-210 and died after several days of agony. Litvinenko
was known for publicly alleging that the Russian government was
behind numerous acts of terrorism against its own people, including
Politkovskaya's murder. These stories are familiar to most who
follow international news. What many people do not know is that
this type of assassination has a long history extending through
Soviet regimes as far back as Lenin. Volodarsky, a former KGB
officer himself, provides evidence that eliminating enemies by
poisoning or other means is still business as usual in Russia,
despite the political changes of the past two decades...["The KGB's
Poison Factory"] will fascinate students as well as general readers
interested in international espionage.
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