A Very Expensive Poison: The Assassination of Alexander Litvinenko and Putin's War with the West
By: Luke Harding / Narrated By: Nicholas Guy Smith
Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
Enlightened the first Listen morphs into, well, stunned for the second… Do give this a Listen
Where I’m coming from: I’m working towards Certification to be an End of Life Doula, and I love the organization I’m with. I check the group page several times a day, and what did I find upon finishing A Very Expensive Poison? A new post: A young woman in Ukraine who will NOT leave, who will NOT evacuate as she knows that NOW is the time for her to be there for the grieving, there for those who’ve lost their caretakers, there for those who are fearing the very real possibility of their own deaths. New coursework will focus on Sudden Death, Traumatic Grief, and Traumatic Recovery. Yes, my friend, this our Current Reality.
And it has me reflecting upon the world as it was when journalist/author Luke Harding sounded the trumpets in 2017 when this audiobook was released (With author/historian Timothy Snyder blaring them in 2012’s Bloodlands—tho’ about Stalin and Hitler, it focused on what Putin has been touting as a glorious age for Russia). I went back to read my review of this, A Very Expensive Poison, over on Audible.
What’s changed?
How can anyone change when not wishing to be inconvenienced, when not wishing to address something. And don’t even start me on the prior Administration’s cooing words of love and friendship and even frickin’ admiration for Putin.
A Very Expensive Poison blew me away then; it’s blown me away now… again.
Written in such a way that, even when it “slows” down to educate about where and how polonium is produced, at no point is this anything less than breakneck tempo. This is NOT written in a chronological fashion, which left some readers/listeners with mental whiplash with the back-and-forth style. But my brain works like that: There’s nothing so enticing as a rabbit hole to go down when presented with captivating tidbits of information. Further, if you’re like me and love History, you’ll enjoy the side-alleys Harding goes down. The names are a bit hard to keep track of, but at least Harding does little asides to point out that often (I dunno, maybe all the time? Let’s stick with often) women have a bit of a different last name than their husbands, a tiny tweak at the end of their surnames.
Plus, Putin and his unlikely rise to power is chronicled in such a fashion as to make one almost weep as this man most asSUREdly was but a middling man of few talents working for the FSB (Starting in the KGB as it was earlier known). Harding ticks off the very many things, the situations that HAD to occur before such mediocrity could ascend, all the way to where he now is, firmly ensconced, many power grabs behind him: A slighted man with many a chip on the shoulder, scores to settle, a rat most deadly when cornered.
Further, Harding was in a unique position, being moved to the Moscow Bureau for “The Guardian” at the time this story was occurring, came to light.
Let’s go back to what it was, how the assassination of a Russian dissident, Alexander Litvinenko, was supposed to happen, leaving nary a breadcrumb that could be traced back to Russia and its operatives. Alas for Putin, the bumbling assassins left trails of polonium/radiation all over the place… Bumbling, yet successful. Is there anything more harrowing than the iconic photo of Litvinenko, gaunt, obviously dying but appearing determined even as his body succumbed to polonium poisoning.
I loved Nicholas Guy Smith’s narration for this truly superbly written story: Whispery when secrets are passed, when there’s trouble and plotting brewing, and then shocked and outraged maybe when, say, Harding’s Moscow apartment has been broken into… the first time… with its warning of an open window aside his young son’s bed. As though: He could fall, he could die, you might want to leave this case alone, stop writing it…
Harding does NOT stop writing it, and it’s all here. All the way from early experiences to direct situations in Russia, to being expelled from the country, to being on the same plane that one of the many polonium quantities was brought on. Nothing like a letter from an airline letting you know that the plane found sound doses of radiation, but that it wasn’t too bad so you’re probably okay…
From Litvinenko, to Oligarchs, to Putin, to assassins, to voices speaking out only to be killed most violently or most surreptitiously. From Scotland Yard’s relentless testing and tracking, to their thwarted efforts to question the poisoners in Russia, where they’d been assured, it’d been announced to the World: Russia would grant access and complete Openness. Only to meet roadblock after roadblock, only to discover healthy men supposedly on their deathbeds after Litvinenko Was The Person Who Was Attempting Assassinations. Wrap that up with Scotland Yard’s discovering tapes of interviews had been erased.
Sometimes this world gets to be much, and tho’ I’ve sooo many more audiobooks on Soviet History, and on new Russian wealth and power… I do believe I’m going to take a pause in more Listening. I’ll listen instead to the young woman from Ukraine. I’ll hear her story, and I’ll observe with gratitude as someone in this world, even amidst such turmoil and death, is working, living, breathing…
In a manner good for the planet, good for the people.
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