Thank God for Russians! Just when the British media were running low on preening comedy super-villains, the break up of the USSR, the rise of the oligarchs and President Putin’s feisty attitude to international relations have provided us with a rolling cast of shady billionaires, spies and businessmen who wouldn’t look out of place in a leather armchair stroking a Persian cat.
Or would they? Much of the British public’s distrust of modern Russia centres on the Alexander Litvinenko affair, one of the most extraordinary murders in recent history. It saw the former spy dying of radiation poisoning in a British hospital bed while pointing the finger of suspicion at the Russian president.
This BBC documentary gets unprecedented access to Andrei Lugovoi (pictured), Scotland Yard’s chief suspect and a former KGB mucker of Putin’s, and the man the Russians refuse to extradite.
Reporter Mark Franchetti follows Lugovoi as he prepares to stand in elections for the ultra-nationalist LDPR party - a move that will, coincidentally, leave him immune from prosecution in his native land.
Tune in on Tuesday at 7pm.
