At least 4 articles appeared in the Russian press on Tuesday accusing the CIA in killing the Russian defector Litvinenko in London. All the articles were printed in FSB-backed newspapers, and are designed for "internal use only" inside Russia.
The "arguments", depending on the article, are as follows:
The CIA killed Mr Litvinenko in connection with a power struggle in Kremlin for the post of the future president. The U.S. allegedly supports Medvedev and Sergei Ivanov and poisoned Mr Litvinenko to discredit their rivals.
The defector picked up radiation due to a fault in the technological process in a secret Al-Qaeda laboratory in London where his friends had been making a "dirty bomb". Russian readers, due to earlier similar articles, believe that Al-Qaeda is a subsidiary of the CIA. So Mr Litvinenko was accidently poisoned by the CIA.
Litvinenko was allegedly mentally ill from the very start. The CIA and MI6 fed him a "truth vaccine". He committed suicide.
Litvinenko was not a "traitor". He was a brave FSB Russian agent in the enemy capital of London pretending to be anti-Putin. The CIA got to know about his double role and poisoned him with polonium, the Russian press says.
KC