Britain is expected to ask for the extradition of a Russian citizen to be tried in the murder of former Russian spy, Alexander Litvinenko.
This has been in the news for months. You might have heard of the word "polonium-210" being thrown around - it's a nasty isotope that causes devastating radiation poisoning in a very short amount of time, as it decays relatively fast and as such is a high alpha particle emitter, the latter being extremely destructive to human tissues. Litvinenko claimed that he was poisoned with the isotope, as retribution for comments made criticizing the Putin administration. He died shortly after being admitted for medical treatment.
The Guardian UK has a very succinct and informative story on the developments and players. If you want to read about some even more crazy black ops espionage tainted details, then check out Alexander Litvinenko's obituary notice.
This could be a big deal for the U.S. as the U.K. is a close ally, and U.K.-Russian relationships are expected to chill should the British government ask for the citizen to be extradited. Do we think that Bush is a big enough statesman to run the war on terror in the Middle East and referee the tension that's building between the U.K. and Russia? That's been America's role in the past. It's been an effective means of deflecting national attention from domestic affairs to foreign concerns.
It should be interesting to see what comes out of all this.
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