Russian intel expert shot outside D.C. area home

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/282678,cst-nws-rside04.article

March 4, 2007
BY BRETT ZONGKER
WASHINGTON -- An expert on Russian intelligence was critically injured in a shooting in front of his suburban Washington home, authorities said.

The shooting of Paul Joyal, 53, came days after he accused the Russian government of involvement in the poisoning of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko. The FBI was assisting in the investigation.

Joyal was shot Thursday by two men in his driveway, police said.

The shooting appeared to be a random robbery and street shooting, a law enforcement official with knowledge of the case said. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person didn't have authority to comment.

[soothsayer]

1. It appeared to be a random robbery and street shooting? even tho

everyone who's criticizing Putin and fingering him for murdering the spy is ending up dead?

[trumad]

2. More than meets the eye--mho

<snip>
The Kremlin even suggested that Leonid Nevzlin, a wealthy oil executive who fled Russia and lives in Israel, might have been involved. There was no proof for any of these assertions. Last July, however, the Duma passed a law, introduced by the Kremlin, to permit the assassination of “enemies of the Russian regime” abroad. For people like Boris Berezovsky, whose hatred for Putin has become an obsession, the new law explained everything.

“This guy is a K.G.B. guy,’’ Berezovsky told me one afternoon over tea at a London hotel. “This guy issues a law allowing the Russians to kill opponents abroad. So they kill opponents abroad.’’ His voice rose, and he shrugged, and then he glanced at me as if to say, How could one draw any other conclusion? “This is absolutely logical. Why did they issue this law? For what? Because this is Russia and nobody agrees to kill without the signature of somebody more important who gave the order.’’ The Kremlin has denied any involvement in Litvinenko’s death. Whatever the truth, the manner in which he died has tarnished Putin’s reputation in the West. And so has the execution of a journalist who had been accused of nothing more than doing her job.
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/070129fa_fact_specter