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Sat 05 May 2007A murder mystery wrapped in a Russian riddleCurrent AffairsMartin Sixsmith is a former BBC Moscow correspondent who, since leaving Russia in 2002, has written a number of books with Russian themes, including Moscow Coup: The Death of the Soviet System, and a humorous novel, I Heard Lenin Laugh. There is nothing funny about the Litvinenko case however, and the author has produced a sober work of non-fiction that is also a gripping whodunnit.It involves the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, an exiled Russian agent who was poisoned with polonium 210 in London and died an agonising death there in December 2006. Several suspects have been named in the western media, ranging from agents of the Kremlin to disaffected political or business associates. In what Sixsmith describes as a war that has been raging hot and cold since 2002 between some of Russia's richest men and the strongest president since Josef Stalin, each side accuses the other of the darkest deeds. Claims and counter claims are made, sometimes without the slightest basis in fact, and the hand of President Vladimir Putin or his arch-enemy, Boris Berezovsky, an oligarch resident in London, is seen behind every evil.