Tim Farron and Tom Brake have reacted to this morning’s publication of the report into the nurder of Alexander Litvinenko which concluded that Andrei Lugovoi, a key ally of Vladimir Putin, and Dmitri Kovtun killed Litvinenko and that Putin probably authorised it.
Tim Farron said that those responsible must be held to account:
A UK citizen was killed on the streets of London with polonium. It was an attack on the heart of Britain, our values and our society.
I call for EU travel bans, asset freezes and coordinated action to deal with those who committed this evil assassination. I have called for a new Magnitsky Law to make sure that these people are held to account for what they did.
These assassins trampled over British sovereignty and we cannot let this go unanswered.
If you were wondering what Magnitsky Laws are, they’re named after Russian lawyer and fraud investigator Sergei Magnitsky, who uncovered evidence of a major theft of tax money by government officials – but was then arrested for it himself, imprisoned, beaten, and left to languish for 358 days before he died in jail at age 37. Magnitsky laws impose sanctions outside of Russia against officials who were involved in the case, such as freezing their assets or barring them from bank transactions.
Tom Brake added:
The findings of the report reveal the callous killing of a British citizen on UK soil and now we must act firmly in condemning the perpetrators of this crime.
Further action against Russia is needed – travel bans and the freezing of assets Russia are the very least that these assassins deserve.
Our country must send a robust message that these crimes cannot happen on our streets.
Update
Tom Brake was far from impressed with the Home Secretary’s statement to the Commons today:
>We have serious concerns over what appears to be the Government passing on responsibility for what should be a unwavering response to the Russian state, who committed a barbarous and calculated assassination on the streets of London.
The Home Secretary has said ‘it is not business as usual’ but what she’s done is effectively turned away to state sponsored terrorism in the UK. She has effectively said there will be no consequences.
Why is the Home Secretary saying she will consult with the Public Prosecutor about further action? It is the Government that should make decisions on matters as important as these, not pass the buck to someone else.”
For a Government which is obsessed with British sovereignty when it comes to the EU, they are remarkably hesitant to assert our sovereignty in the face of a manifest and egregious intrusion on our streets by an aggressive foreign power.
He had asked her:
A slap on the wrist for Russia won’t do it. President Putin’s heart will not miss a beat if the UK cancels a trade mission here or a cultural visit there, but it will if we expand the scope of the sanctions already in force because of Russia’s illegal activities in Ukraine. Will the UK Government now ban any other Russians implicated in the murder, however senior, from travelling to the UK and freeze their assets? An assault on our sovereignty, which saw a British citizen murdered on British soil in a nuclear attack, requires nothing less.
Theresa May really didn’t answer the question:
As we have said, it is of course right that we take extremely seriously the nature of the attack that took place and the findings of the inquiry. As I indicated, this is not something that comes as a surprise. An assessment has been made by successive Governments of the responsibility and involvement of the Russian state in the act, as well as of the two individuals who have been named as undertaking the act here in the United Kingdom. We have a series of sanctions in place. The right hon. Gentleman mentioned the reaction to Ukraine. I indicated earlier that it is in fact the United Kingdom that has been leading the European Union effort in placing sanctions on individuals in Russia.
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14 Comments
So we want a travel ban to stop people coming here, who me might want to arrest if we could lay our hands on them?
The trail of radioactive polonium across London is also an issue. It put at risk the health, and maybe the life, of people in no way connected with the KGB or its successor the FSB.
It is outrageous, but we need to calm down when we talk about Putin as a murderer. As we know, Obama and Cameron also sanction extra judicial killings.
I’ve even supported them for people like ISIS terrorists when no arrest can be made. But spies are usually dealt with through capture and deportation, not killing, so yes, it is unacceptable.
Andy Burnham banging on about the dangers of polonium leaking through the streets of Britain was a good point, as Richard Underhill says.
Simplistic Boy Scout thinking from Tim and Tom. If Litvinenko had escaped to the UK, sought asylum and got a job in Aldi stacking shelves, he would still be alive.
Let’s get real here. He was employed by MI6 when he arrived on our shores. He wasn’t some ordinary bloke on the street. Spies and counter spies do what spies and counter spies do. How many unknown people [spies], have died, oblivious to us the public, because their remit was outside the normal job description and not to be spoken of.? We will never know.
If anyone is culpable in this its MI6. They were his employers, and they didn’t do a very competent job of looking after their employee.
Why does anybody have confidence in this so-called public inquiry, much of which was held behind closed doors using evidence that Sir Robert Owen conceded would not be admissible in a court of law?
Just been reminded of the death of Gareth Williams. An MI6 spy who Scotland Yard concluded “probably locked himself in a bag” “before a third party locked and placed the bag in the bath”.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/13/mi6-spy-dead-bag-locked-himself-gareth-williams
Think about that what you will.
I don’t condone the killing but it won’t be the first, or the last, time that a ‘rogue operative’ (or anyone else) who threatens a government is ‘eliminated’….
Israel does it as a matter of course and, as has been said, Cameron also sanction extra judicial killings……
At the time of his death Litvinenko was working with our security services and was probably involved in trying to extort tens of thousands of pounds blackmailing senior Russian spies and business figures…..
The verdict was ‘Probably Putin’ but, when you play the sort of games Litvinenko was playing, other forces may well have been involved…
Exceptional response from Tim Farron and Tom Brake. I think they’re absolutely right. This is an incredibly serious case and the lame response from Theresa May is very worrying. Putin has shown time and time again that appeasement doesn’t work with him. Smart, tough sanctions are what’s needed.
Glad to see Tom Brake quoted alongside Tim Farron. Tim must be wary of speaking out himself on every subject under the sun. He wants and needs ‘profile’ of course, but the other 7 Libdem MPs need to be heard and seen too, and the Libdem lords, even if they are, in a way, illegitimate. Can Libdems and Labour talk to each other about a sensible defence policy and avoid their respective inanities?
Public opinion, if judged by comments on all major newspapers suggests that nobody really cares. He was a traitor to his country. If Kim Philby or Guy Burgess had been taken out in Russia I wonder what the reaction would have been? Celebrations in the street probably. The Russians never trusted them, once a traitor etc. If this is being used to whip up anti Russian feeling, it is not working.
This isn’t to condone State murder of individuals (in the least), but the cynical, despairing part of me always thinks back to House of Cards (the UK original), when Francis Urquhart, having just had the security services execute two of his enemies, just turns to the camera and says “This kind of thing happens all over the world, you know?”.
That’s not to say we shouldn’t always rage against it, when exposed, but it happens. The Russia apparatus just chose to do it with an almost theatrical, chemical unmistakeability.
…………The Russia apparatus just chose to do it with an almost theatrical, chemical unmistakeability……………
Unlike when, in 4 November 2002, Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harethi, a suspected al-Qaeda operative, who is believed to have planned the USS Cole attack, was killed by the CIA using an AGM-114 Hellfire missile launched from an MQ-1 Predator drone….
Now then we’d have grounds for complaint…
The Times of 15/9/2018 has a front page lead on Gordievsky, which will be followed by the Sunday Times today. I cannot add to what they said about Michael Foot, but it did not require a lot of intelligence to see that a Labour Party led by Michael Foot was not likely to win a general election in 1983 with enough MPs to put a Foot in Number 10. Relations between MPs who stayed in the Labour Party and MPs who joined the SDP without fighting a bye-election were somewhat strained. The Liberal-SDP Alliance were campaigning for first place, coloured gold, despite the first past the post electoral system and the boundary changes. Liberal leader David Steel pointed to the number of deposits Labour lost, more than 100, compared with none for Alliance. Roy Jenkins retained his seat in Glasgow Hillhead which he had won in a bye-election, but stood down from his position as the first SDP leader and was succeeded by a younger man, who was not committed to coalition with the Labour Party which he had left.
The Times is, of course, a Murdoch-owned paper, as is the Sunday Times.
Labour MP Gerald Kaufman had described the Labour manifesto as “the longest suicide note in history”. The Falklands was not the only factor in the 1983 election, although Margaret Thatcher and Enoch Powell played it up.
I remember saying that Gordievsky was “working for the British government in London”, which was the truth and nothing but the truth although I had no special information. It is surprising to learn that the Cabinet Secretary did not inform the PM, who might have used the information for political gain. It is sad to read that although the Americans were given lots of important information and repeatedly asked for the identity of this important source, they managed to deduce who it was and undermined his safety by their own lack of efficient security.