Another Russian Émigré Dies Mysteriously, but It’s a Different Britain
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Version 0 of 1. LONDON — A Russian whistle-blower seeking refuge in Britain dies in bizarre circumstances. There is talk of arcane poison and organized crime. British intelligence services stonewall, citing the imperative of national security without saying why. Those spy-thriller ingredients might recall the case of Alexander V. Litvinenko, a onetime K.G.B. officer who died after ingesting green tea laced with radioactive polonium 210 in November 2006. The murder, a British judge ruled in January, had “probably” been approved by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Now, though, there is in an eerily similar drama. This month, a coroner in Woking, England, postponed an inquest into the death of another Russian émigré, Alexander Perepilichnyy, after the British authorities sought to prevent the disclosure of material deemed to be sensitive. As in the Litvinenko case, the government argued that transparency would jeopardize national security or Britain’s relationship with foreign countries. Lawyers spoke of “potential parallels” between the two deaths and even identified a Russian crime gang representative as “a candidate for the killing.” But there were big distinctions. In 2007, after Mr. Litvinenko’s death, the British government, led by the Labour Party at the time, ordered the expulsion of four Russian diplomats and broke off ties with Moscow’s security services. Relations fell into a chill, likened to the Cold War. Britain, it seemed, still boasted the self-confidence to take on the Kremlin. The projection of power was still part of its diplomatic repertoire. These days, the calculations of realpolitik — and Britain’s sense of itself and its place in the world — are different. After Britons voted in a June referendum to leave the European Union, their country turned inward, fixated on the huge, unpredictable and self-inflicted challenges of disengaging from Europe. While the role of Mr. Putin’s Russia has grown significantly in international diplomatic calculations — from the annexation of Crimea in 2014 to its pivotal role in Syria — Britain’s readiness to mold far-flung events seems to have shrunk back into a twilight of doubt and self-reproach. In July, a long-running inquiry offered a searing indictment of former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. This week, a parliamentary panel castigated former Prime Minister David Cameron for his intervention in Libya alongside France in 2011. In the current negotiations over Syria, the name of Britain’s new foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, has barely been mentioned. Mr. Perepilichnyy, 44, died in 2012, three years after he fled Russia, while jogging near his luxurious home on a private estate southwest of London. The death was initially attributed to a heart attack, but traces of gelsemium, a rare toxin used as a poison and derived from a plant grown in the Himalayas, were later found in his stomach. At the time of his death, he was associated with investigations into a $230 million tax fraud in Russia against an American financier, William F. Browder, a high-profile critic of Mr. Putin. Mr. Perepilichnyy, who had cooperated with the Swiss authorities and Mr. Browder’s investment company, which were both investigating the fraud, was one of five people linked to the case who have died mysteriously. Perhaps the most prominent was Sergei L. Magnitsky, a lawyer and auditor working for Mr. Browder, who was arrested and died in prison in 2009 after the Russian authorities denied him medical care. In the United States, Mr. Browder lobbied for legislation known as the Magnitsky Act that provided for sanctions against Russians accused of wrongdoing at home. The tone among Britain’s post-referendum leaders, by contrast, seems to suggest they are shying from further confrontation with Moscow. In a newspaper column before he took office, Mr. Johnson — then mayor of London — called Mr. Putin “a ruthless and manipulative tyrant.” As foreign minister, his office used the tested clichés of diplomacy to say that despite “some significant differences with Russia,” the two countries should “continue to build a constructive dialogue.” That did not quite cloak the darker narrative. “A full ventilation of the facts,” Mr. Browder told Prospect magazine, would conclude that Mr. Perepilichnyy was killed, and “that means people are getting away with murder in the U.K.” |