Yushchenko: Russian poison link

[ECH1969]

Kiev - In a bizarre twist to the mysterious poisoning that disfigured the face of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, investigators in Kiev are probing a new lead that involves a Russian political consultant.

Prosecutors are studying an audiotape of a conversation which alleges a role in the dioxin poisoning by Kremlin-connected spin-doctor Gleb Pavlovsky, a spokesperson for the prosecutor general told AFP.

The tape recording is of a bugged conversation between a Kremlin official in Moscow and a man in Kiev who is close to Ukraine's SBU secret services, the journalist who passed the tape to prosecutors, Volodymyr Ariev, told AFP.

http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1668548,00.html

[teryang]

1. Odd way to poison someone

Why take the risk of being charged with a serious crime with a poison that is not notably effective in causing death?

It does look like a frame and a very convenient one. I doubt if anyone is as familiar with dioxin and its toxic properties as the Pentagon, which used it as Agent Orange.

As I recall, but I am probably out of date, chloracne was the only physical effect that the government would recognize on a scientific basis after the Agent Orange uproar from veterans.

[daleo]

2. Secret bugged tape recordings aren't exactly evidential.

If anybody doubts that, just think back to Powell's inexcusable U.N. performance with the phony (or misleading, same thing) tape recordings of the Iraqi army officers supposedly discussing how to hide WMD from the U.N. Apparently, they did such a good job that Powell's friends haven't been able to locate them even two years after the investigation.

This story is probably on the same level.