Madam, - I would not have responded to Seamus Martin's review of Blowing up Russia, if it were not directed, in part, at my assassinated co-author Alexander Litvinenko (Books, January 20th). During his life, Alexander never left a single article unanswered.
Mr Martin happened to be present when prime minister Putin stated: "The Russian authorities know the names of those who had committed the terrorist acts." Russia would make a "formal request to the Chechen authorities to hand over the suspects so they could be brought to justice."
However, he fails to mention that the people named by the Russian government were the wrong people. Did Russia make a "formal request" to the Chechen government? No.
Instead, a war was started against Chechnya on September 23rd, 1999. On that same day, remarkably, a Chechen terrorist bomb was discovered in the Russian city of Ryazan several hours before it was set to explode. The only problem was that the terrorists were not Chechens, and the arrested individuals presented the officials with state security IDs and were later released. Did we reveal the sources of our information for Blowing up Russia? Yes, one source was Alexander Litvinenko. His name is on the title page.
Mr Martin argues that Yuri Schekochikhin's death by poisoning with Thallium may have been "unconnected" to his newspaper's support for Blowing up Russia - he was "investigating tax fraud by a company that owned major Russian furniture stores". Correct. However, is he aware the company was owned by a group of FSB generals? I am disappointed, after the murders of Anna Politkovskaya and Alexander Litvinenko, with the arguments of a former Irish Times Moscow correspondent. - Yours, etc,
Dr YURI FELSHTINSKY,
Falmouth, Massachusetts,
USA.