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Some political systems live to slander their opponents and others to murder them. The recent elective tragedy in Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe is one of the most shameless and galling in headlines today; the eight years since Russian strongman Vladimir Putin’s first election is one of the most sustained. Apparently, former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko had looked into Putin’s soul, but what he saw there was not what President Bush saw: instead, Litvinenko saw a cold operation built on Russia’s entrenched system of political suppression, cultural control and oligarchic power. And for his troubles? First accusations, then exile, and eventually, in London, a cup of poisoned tea, rife with the radioactive toxin Polonium-210. Andrei Nekrasov, who’s made documentaries attempting to prove the Russian government’s central role in terrorist acts that fomented successive wars against Chechnya, was his friend. “Poisoned by Polonium: The Litvinenko File” combines first person video diaries, interviews, news coverage and historical footage in a vital and infuriating document. “If the KGB was the armed unit of the Communist Party,” Litvinenko says of its successor secret police force, “then the FSB is the armed unit of a caste of corrupt Russian officials.” A man dies for his beliefs, and we see his agony from his hospital bed (the cause of his death was not determined until afterwards). And what did Mr. Putin say on hearing of Litvinenko’s death? “Mr. Litvinenko is unfortunately not Lazarus.” At least these sorts of power grabs, feats of political opportunism, concentration of wealth and dynastic succession have no place in our country. 106m. 35mm. (Ray Pride)
