A Very Expensive Poison

Here is the true story of murder and conspiracy leading straight to Vladimir Putin. Alexander City journalist, Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned in London in 2006. He died twenty-two days later. The cause of death? A rare, lethal, and highly radioactive substance—polonium. This book by Luke Harding, former Moscow bureau chief for the Guardian, unspools a real-life political assassination story, complete with KGB, CIA, MI6, and Russian mobsters. The author shows how Litvinenko’s murder foreshadowed the killings of other Kremlin critics. In doing so, he becomes a target himself and unearths a chain of corruption and death leading straight to Vladimir Putin.