It's one of the biggest stories of the year -- and certainly the most unusual. I'm talking about the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy living in London who was poisoned with a radioactive isotope last month. Nothing like this has been seen for nearly 20 years, back when the Cold War was raging.
The main questions still baffling everyone are, of course: Who did it -- and why? Sure, they are obviously the most important questions now being addressed by the British authorities and others. But there's another that hasn't been asked as urgently, but my theory is that its answer will shed considerable light on the main questions. It is this: Why was Litvinenko murdered in such an unusual, expensive way? I'm probably biased, but I think a little Darwinian reasoning may shed light on the mystery.
First, the facts as they stand. Polonium-210 -- the metalloid element used to kill Litvinenko -- has now been found at 10 locations in London, traces have been detected on two Airways planes, at the British Embassy in Moscow, at a sushi shop in central London, and even at Emirates Stadium, the home ground of Arsenal, a north London soccer club. It has also been detected at the Hamburg home of a Russian businessman, an associate of Litvinenko named Dmitry Kovtun.