No secret department to punish traitors in Russia's FSB
Litvinenko, a former FSB officer and outspoken Kremlin critic with ties to exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, died November 23 in a London hospital from a lethal dose of radioactive polonium-210.
Valentin Velichko, the president of Honor and Dignity, said in an interview with Rossiiskaya Gazeta, that a special department that existed in Soviet dictator Stalin's era to kill defecting secret agents acted only after relevant court judgments had been delivered.
"Now that the death penalty no longer exists in our moratorium-bound country, neither does the department," he said.
"The West is eager to find a Russian fingerprint," Velichko said. "By accusing us of poisoning Litvinenko, it is easier to target the president later, as it is the head of state who stands behind the secret services."
