Blackmail

We now learn that Alexander Litvinenko was blackmailing Russian oligarchs. See the Guardian story here and the Times here. A few excerpts:

Litvinenko claimed to have made contact with senior sources in the heart of the FSB, the successor to the KGB, who would supply him with a stream of confidential dossiers on any target that the 43-year-old exile requested.

These documents would, according to Litvinenko, be used to 'blackmail' some of Russia's most shadowy and formidable figures. It was simple: either they would pay or the world would learn their blackest secrets.

And...

Although he described himself as a journalist, Litvinenko tried unsuccessfully to muscle in on several lucrative business deals with Russians.

On the day that he fell ill he was attempting to broker a gas and oil exploration deal involving a British conglomerate that he claimed to represent. He was envious of the money that many of his former colleagues were making.

Litvinenko's crankish anti-Putin writings are now sought-after collectables. A largely unread flack for Berezovsky is now viewed as a martyr and a prophet. Putin surely would have foreseen that assassination would credibilize an otherwise insignificant "publicist" (to use a term that saw circulation in old Russia). But the targets of Litvinenko's blackmail attempts had motives that were very real and pressing.

So far we have no proof that Alex hit Berezovsky up for blackmail cash. So far.