Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

Of course there are no traces of polonium-210 on V. Putin's hands, but he is the one who made the killing of Alexander Litvinenko possible. Just as he created the atmosphere in which the killing of Anna Politkovskaya was possible. Russia is once more a totalitarian state in which freedom of expression is a matter of life or death and murder is a strategic weapon to be deployed within and without the country's borders.

All this puts one in mind of Casino Royale, Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel, which is now an excellent film starring Daniel Craig as 007. In transporting the story from the 1950s to our day and age, the movie makers left a lot of material on the cutting room floor and one of the snips that was made, understandably, given that the Cold War is over, concerned SMERSH. But in light of Litvinenko's death, it is worth recalling what Fleming wrote more than 50 years ago. We pick up the story on page 10 where M, the head of the British Secret Service, is reading a detailed memo from Station S:

Appendix B. Subject: SMERSH

Sources: Own archives and scanty material made available by Deuxième Bureau and CIA Washington.

SMERSH is a conjunction of two Russian words: 'Smyert Shpionam', meaning roughly: 'Death to Spies'.
Ranks above MWD (formerly NKVD) and is believed to come under the personal direction of Beria.
Headquarters: Leningrad (substation of Moscow).
Its task is the elimination of all forms of treachery and back-sliding within the various branches of the Soviet Secret Service and Secret Police at home and abroad. It is the most powerful and feared organization in the USSR and is popularly believed never to have failed in a mission of vengeance.

All we need to do is substitute "Putin" for "Beria" there and we are right up to date when it comes to vengeance. The memo goes on to outline the structure of SMERSH and the responsibilities of its different departments. Then we get this:

Only one SMERSH operative has come into our hands since the war: Goytchev, alias Garad-Jones. He shot Petchora, medical officer at the Yugoslav Embassy, in Hyde Park, 7 August 1948. During interrogation he committed suicide by swallowing a coat-button of compressed potassium cyanide.

Polonium-210 is a step up from cyanide, no doubt, but evil does not change its spots and just because more cunning means are used today in the elimination of a regime's opponents does not mean that it is more sophisticated. Quite the contrary, in fact. The new Russia is every bit as barbaric as the old Russia. It just wears a better quality suit.