On January 23, The Telegraph reports that its staff have been investigating an audio tape they obtained that belonged to murdered Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko. On the tape, recorded in November 2005, Litvinenko says that he’s been able to connect Vladimir Putin’s relationship with Semion Mogilevich back to 1993 or 1994.
In the recording obtained by The Telegraph, Litvinenko also claimed that Mogilevich was selling weapons to al-Qaeda and that Russia had threatened him for working with a team to uncover KGB ties to Italian politicians.
Litvinenko became extremely ill following a meeting with former KGB agents Andrey Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun on November 1, 2006. It is believed that the agents poisoned him during their meeting. On November 23, he passed away.
