Accused Ex-KGB Polonium Terrorist Andrei Lugovoi to Run for Russian Parliament

Picture credit: Litvinenko Justice Foundation

"We are hurtling back into a Soviet abyss, into an information vacuum that spells death from our own ignorance. All we have left is the internet, where information is still freely available. For the rest, if you want to go on working as a journalist, it's total servility to Putin. Otherwise, it can be death, the bullet, poison, or trial - whatever our special services, Putin's guard dogs, see fit."---Anna Politkovskaya

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reports (9-17-07) reports:

Andrei Lugovoi, the ex-KGB agent wanted by the Britain on suspicion of killing fellow former agent Aleksandr Litvinenko, says he would like to become president of Russia.

At a congress of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, headed by ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Lugovoi today said he will run for parliament on the party's list in the December 2 vote. When asked if he had other political aspirations, he said he would someday like to become president.

British prosecutors want to extradite Lugovoi to face trial for the poisoning of Litvinenko in London last year. Russia has refused, saying that its constitution bars Lugovoi's extradition.

A seat in parliament would guarantee Lugovoi legal immunity.

Lugovoi told reporters that the events surrounding Litvinenko's death pushed him to enter politics.

He called the charges against him "a vile provocation," and accused the British government of politicizing the investigation.

Note: This blog has written many articles about the poisoning of Aleksandr Litvinenko. Readers can use the search feature at the top left of this blog to search for Litvinenko or polonium. Litvinenko may have been murdered because he accused President Putin and the Russian FSB (KGB) of complicity in the murder the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya and of the bombing of several apartment buildings in Russia. Politkovskaya had been researching these bombings.

Litvinenko contended that the bombings were blamed on the Chechens, used to justify the second Chechen war, and to launch and Putin's Presidency. A lot of people who have tried to get to the bottom of these mass murders of innocent Russians have been murdered.

Zhirinovsky's so-called Liberal Democratic Party of Russia is not liberal, and it is not democratic. It is a xenophobic, extreme nationalist party. Wikipedia notes that Zhirinovsky, a strong supporter of the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, is implicated in the Oil for Food scandal:

Zhirinovsky hailed what he described as "the democratic process" in Iraq under Saddam Hussein, whom he supported strongly. The friendship dates at least until the first Gulf War, during which time Zhirinovsky sent several volunteers from the "Falcons of Zhirinovsky" group to support the Iraqi president. Allegations have dogged Zhirinovsky closely since the fall of Baghdad that he personally profited from illicit oil sales as part of the Oil-for Food scandal, a charge investigated in 2005 by the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI).

According to RFE/RL (9-18-07):

[Zhirinovsky's] Liberal Democratic Party of Russia held its national pre-election congress in Moscow on September 17, RFE/RL's Russian Service reported the next day (see "RFE/RL Newsline," September 17, 2007). Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky struck an ardent anti-Western and anti-American tone in his address to the gathering, saying that Russia is surrounded by enemies and in a state of civil war. The party's No. 2 candidate, businessman, and former security agent Andrei Lugovoi, who is a suspect in the November 2006 murder in London of former Russian security officer Aleksandr Litvinenko, told reporters after the congress that he might consider being the party's candidate in the March 2008 presidential election. Zhirinovsky noted that his party has "always supported those who wear epaulettes" [ie KGB officers]. He said that the "chekist" or intelligence officer, is a symbol of the struggle between Russia and a hostile West. [See news item titled "LDPR KICKS OFF DUMA CAMPAIGN"]