putin is as corrupt as anybody. as anybody in post communist russia. the mission may have started years before when litvinenko made that flow chart of corruption in the fsb. the head of the agency at the time was putin. after litvinenko fled to london, and putin became president of russia, litvinenko attacked him, relentlessly. and by name. i and others said that this is a very dangerous thing to do because your personalizing this. you told him that? yes. but marina and others believe that the ultimate motive may not have been personal at all. rather it was all about money. we learned that in 2005 and 2006, litvinenko made multiple visits to spain, helping prosecutors take down a major organized crime ring. one that litvinenko publicly claimed had financial ties to president putin. putin s office has never responded to that allegation.
million in a costly fashion like this. you would have made an accident? indeed. things are less expensive, old-fashioned bullets and bodies work more effectively, cheaply. why not shoot him? i didn t say they would have. could possibly. we don t do that sort of thing. also remember, litvinenko was working for mi6. and it was lugovoi at his partner dmitry kovtun who left a radioactive trail all over london. especially at the pine bar. lugovoi is hardly hiding here in russia. he did our interview in one of the restaurants that he owns. he s a member of parliament. and he s even become something of a pop culture icon. hosting his own tv show. the program, appropriately enough, is called traitors. it names in james individuals who are supposedly enemies of the russian state.
villains in a tale of international intrigue and murder. yet here in russia, we found plenty of people who thought if the two did kill litvinenko, he probably had it come in coming. thank you very much for talking to us. in the duma, russia s parliament, the pugnacious leader of the ultra nationalist party has nothing but disdain for litvinenko. who needs this little petty person? he was just a piece of rubbish. vladimir zhirinovsky told us that here in russia, litvinenko made plenty of enemies. going back years. back in the 1990s, russia was in chaos after the collapse of the soviet union. it was a time when enormous fortunes were created and outrageous crimes committed, sometimes by the very people sent to investigate them. back then, alexander litvinenko was a young fsb agent who claimed to be disturbed by what he saw. litvinenko specialized in organized crime investigations,
feeling that his country was being betrayed by the leadership. he believed he didn t do anything wrong. he was a good officer. he didn t think it would get him in trouble? he said, they will kill me or they will arrest me. he was jailed for nine months. but that billionaire he had warned, berezovsky, bailed him out. and helped litvinenko and his family flee to london. there, litvinenko kept up the drumbeat of criticism against the russian government. he even wrote a book accusing the fsb of starting a war in chechnya. for political reasons. in response, russia branded litvinenko a traitor. his image used for target practice by russian special forces. this wasn t just symbolism. in march, 2006, eight months before litvinenko s murder, the russian parliament passed a law authorizing the liquidation of enemies of the state, anywhere
his high profile here is just one reason that many people who spectrum of murder think he did not act on his own. another reason, all of the polonium 210 in russia is under the control of the state. it s impossible to use a state controlled substance like this without the knowledge of the very top of the country. because you re unleashing a radioactive substance? it s almost a tiny little dirty bomb. it s nuclear terrorism. of all his enemies, litvinenko may have infuriated one more than any other. coming up i have said that this is a very dangerous thing to do because your personalizing this. when dateline continues. why hide your skin if dupixent has your moderate-to-severe eczema, or atopic dermatitis under control? hide my skin? not me. because dupixent targets a root cause of eczema, it helps heal your skin from within, keeping you one step ahead of it.