The Blackmail “kompromat” Theory

There is another theory regarding Alexander Litvinenko's death, that it was his plans to blackmail powerful people, including oligarchs, corrupt officials and sources in the Kremlin. I will try and provide a representative sampling of articles here, on this possibility.

'I can blackmail them. We can make money' The Guardian Unlimited, Mark Townsend, Jamie Doward and Tom Parfitt, describe Alexander Litvinenko as no stranger to risk. Over the summer months, the former Kremlin spy began finalizing an extraordinary business proposition that may prove the most compelling motive yet for murder.

Putin on the Throwback, Why are all the Russian reporters dying? Nikolas Gvosdev, in The National Review, writes about the trail of suspicious deaths and murders and attacks leads primarily to journalists and intelligence specialists, people who by training and profession gather secrets, people who were uncovering evidence of corruption at both the regional and federal levels; hidden crimes, human-rights abuses, shady deals, or sometimes just what the Russians call “kompromat”, the “compromising material” which can be used to embarrass or blackmail rivals, all the things that entrenched interests in both the government and the business communities never want exposed to the light of day.

Was he on the verge of unmasking a master spy at the heart of the Italian government? Jason Lewis with the Daily Mail, writes that a mysterious agent who leaked British defence secrets to the Russians is now at the centre of the hunt for the murderer of Alexander Litvinenko. Investigators believe Litvinenko may have been killed to protect the agent, codenamed Uchitel, 'The Teacher', by his former KGB paymasters.

Revealed: Litvinenko's Russian 'blackmail plot' Mark Townsend, Jamie Doward, Tom Parfitt, and Barbara McMahon, write in The Guardian Unlimited, the story of Julia Svetlichnaja in which she reveals that Alexander Litvinenko asked her to enter into a business deal with him and 'make money. He told me he was going to blackmail or sell sensitive information about all kinds of powerful people, including oligarchs, corrupt officials and sources in the Kremlin,' she said. 'He mentioned a figure of £10,000 that they would pay each time to stop him broadcasting these FSB documents. Litvinenko was short of money and was adamant that he could obtain any files he wanted.'