The start of the full inquest in London into the death of ex-FSB officerAlexander Litvinenko in November 2006 has been postponed from May 1st to October 2nd. If you read Russian websites and goverment/media pronouncements on this the reason for the delay is the foot-dragging by the British government in providing paperwork the inquest needs. That's true, and the presiding coroner, Justice Sir Robert Owen, has complained about that. What the Russian commentators are not mentioning is that their own Investigative Committee, which is an interested party, have just sent in 15,000 pages of evidence, in Russian, which has to be translated. That takes a bit of time.

The British government also seems to be trying to stymie the inquest by raising a PII certificate - Public Interest Immunity, that is. The idea would be that certain evidence should not be made available either to the public, NOR to the other interested parties, who would not be told what it is they are not allowed to see - on grounds of national security...perhaps.

The barrister for Litvinenko's widow says that what is really going on here is an attempt by our government to keep relations with Russia sweet because of trade agreements that we need. But this, he says, would be tantamount to giving Russia a licence to kill. After all, the official position here is that it was the Russian State that ordered Litvinenko's poisoning with Polonium 210. 

Robert Owen has yet to announce whether he will abide by the government's PII request. As to keeping the Russians sweet, how annoying, then, that asylum was granted to another Russian oligarch, Andrei Borodin...One of the problems for the Russians is that British courts and immigration judges don't necessarily do what the 'executive' tells them. Which makes it all rather unpredictable.

The Russian position was that it was Boris Berezovsky who wanted Litvinenko dead because...well, because he was fed up with Litvinenko whinging about the cut to the very generous allowance Berezovsky had given him for some years. Berezovsky, whow as also an interested party at the inquest and had his barrister to represent him, of course denied that.

Berezovsky is now dead. Heart attack brought on by natural causes? suicide? murder? Choose your pick. And everyone is. There are reasons to suspect any of them, and depending on your choice, I will tell you who you are. Since I don't yet know which of the three it is, I presumably am suffering from a crisis of identity.