...

I'd been kinda-hoping the "Italian connection" aspect was kaputt, letting our national reputation (or what's left of it) off the easy way - but no such luck! The "latest-latest" is that Scaramella has dramatically changed his story, says that the email he travelled to London to show Litvinenko wasn't a list of "Russian secret services agents" likely to have been responsible for Politkovskaya's death - but was instead about  death-threats against Scaramella himself, which he now says were from "organised criminals in St. Petersburg",sent through a source he says Litvinenko had introduced him to! 8O  

ROME, Nov 21 (Reuters) - A contact who met Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian ex-spy whose poisoning has sparked accusations of a Kremlin assassination plot, said he showed him an organised crime hit-list earing his name on the day he fell ill.

Mario Scaramella, who has helped Italy's parliament investigate Cold War-era Soviet espionage, said he met Litvinenko at a London sushi bar to show him emails from a mutual source warning their lives may be in danger.

The threat came from organised criminals based in St. Petersburg, possibly acting on behalf of Russia's government, Scaramella told Reuters. His source suspected the same criminals killed a Russian journalist last month.

Both dismissed the four-page warning as unfounded, he said, adding they were both accustomed to hearing of possible threats.

"I said Alex, I received an alarm in the last few days from a source that you introduced to me," Scaramella said, speaking to reporters in Rome in English.

"He said: 'It's unbelievable. Don't worry about that'."
(...)

Scaramella, who describes himself as a consultant but is also an Italian judge [ huh???? ], refused to speculate who was behind the poisoning. But he said the email warned the threat was from the same criminals who killed Politkovskaya.

It included targets in Britain, Italy and elsewhere, and included the names of at least one Italian senator.[huh? - wanna bet he means his mate Guzzanti??]

"Stranger and stranger" - as Alice in Wonderland used to say. :?  

But I must admit this version sounds slightly more convincing than the previous one. Maybe the Italian detectives-or-whatever now said to be investigating on "our" side - who will have only-naturally asked to examine Scaramella's famous e-mail - have warned him to cut at least some of the crap??


"Ignoring moralities is always undesirable, but doing so systematically is really worrisome." Mohammed Khatami