Free Republic

BERLIN (Reuters) - The head of an organization of former Russian spies was quoted as saying on Thursday Moscow abandoned its policy of assassinating enemies long ago, and that Alexander Litvinenko was probably murdered by criminals. Former KGB agent Valentin Velichko said fellow former agent Litvinenko, who died in London on November 23 from radiation poisoning, was a traitor but was not killed by Moscow. "That was long ago. It belonged to the days of Stalin," Velichko, head of the Veterans of Foreign Intelligence, told Die Welt newspaper in an interview. Millions died under the rule of dictator Josef Stalin.

'It was one of the most audacious acts of the Cold War which could have come straight from the pages of a spy novel. Georgi Markov was jabbed with an umbrella which fired a poison pellet into his leg as he crossed Waterloo Bridge. He died three days later – and for almost 35 years mystery has surrounded the whereabouts of his killer. Now the prime suspect has been tracked down to a small Austrian town where he works as an antiques dealer. Francesco Gullino, 66, who was known by his Communist handlers as 'Agent Piccadilly', lives in a rundown...

London umbrella assassin is named Jack Hamilton, Sofia and Tom Walker THE IDENTITY of the secret agent who assassinated Georgi Markov, the Bulgarian dissident, with a poison pellet umbrella on Waterloo Bridge in London has finally been revealed. Leaked intelligence documents have named Francesco Giullino, a Dane of Italian origin who worked for the Bulgarian secret service, as the hitman who carried out the murder 26 years ago. The new evidence is likely to prompt fresh inquiries from Scotland Yard, which has kept an open file on the notorious cold war killing. Giullino, now 59, is named in Bulgarian secret...