Posted on March 8, 2010 - by Venik

Alexander Litvinenko’s father finds little sanctuary in Italy

• ‘Business raided and asylum refused’
• Berlusconi’s friendship with Putin blamed

For Walter Litvinenko, it was a difficult but necessary step. After his son Alexander was murdered in London in 2006 in the most scandalous political killing since the cold war, Walter fled Russia for sanctuary in western Europe. He chose Italy. It offered a new, anonymous, KGB-free life.

But two years after arriving in the sleepy seaside town of Senigallia on the Adriatic coast, Litvinenko says his family is being persecuted once again, their restaurant raided and closed down, their request for asylum repeatedly refused despite evidence that they would be at risk in Russia. Now, he says, they have run out of money and rely on charity handouts for food. For Litvinenko, there is only one plausible explanation: Silvio Berlusconi’s unwillingness to upset the Kremlin or his friend, Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin.

“We have fallen victim to a political game,” Litvinenko said today, speaking from the cramped flat he shares with eight relatives. “Berlusconi is no better than Putin. All European governments have been flirting with Putin. Berlusconi’s dependence on him, and on Russian gas, means that we don’t get asylum.”

Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent turned dissident, was poisoned with a radioactive isotope, sparking theories that the Kremlin ordered the killing. A British police investigation resulted in a failed attempt to extradite another former KGB agent, Andrei Lugovoi.

Walter Litvinenko, 71, arrived in Italy in April 2008 with his wife, Lyuba. Their daughter Tatiana – Alexander Litvinenko’s half-sister – and her husband and their two children followed eight months later, joining Walter’s son Maxim Litvinenko, his wife and young daughter. At this point the Litvinenkos applied for asylum.

At the same time they opened a restaurant in the tourist resort of Rimini. Maxim Litvinenko, who moved to Italy nine years ago, is a professional chef. But soon after opening their business, and securing local permissions, the police informed them they were operating illegally, with one room lacking planning permission.

On 31 October 2009 police burst into the restaurant at 12.45am, complaining of “loud music”. Tatiana says the last guests had left at midnight and the family were quietly clearing up. The police demanded to see the Litvinenkos’ papers. When Tatiana told them her documents were in her flat, a short walk away, one policeman grabbed her roughly by the arm, she says. “I struggled free. He then chased after me and pushed me from behind. I smashed my head on the marble floor. I lost consciousness.” She says she suffered concussion. “I felt groggy for days. I had to see the doctor.”

The restaurant, La Terrazza, was finally shut down in November. The Litvinenkos were forced to move to a cheaper flat down the coast in nearby Senigallia.

The family say they do not know if the harassment has been authorised at the highest levels. “I thought Europe had 100% rule of law. We discovered in Italy this isn’t true. It’s connections and the mafia. It’s as if we never arrived in Europe but ended up in some Russian province,” Tatiana says.

Italian immigration officials have interrogated the family twice. According to Tatiana, they expressed little interest in why the Litvinenkos fled their home in the southern Russian town of Nalchik. Instead, they wanted to know how they had come to Italy and whether their visas had been forged.

Britain’s own offers of asylum to high-profile Russian exiles including Litvinenko and his patron, Boris Berezovsky, have long infuriated Russia. Berlusconi has chosen to avoid the same mistake, Walter Litvinenko says.

Paolo Guzzanti, a former senator in Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party who fell out with the prime minister over his friendship with Putin, said it was likely that Berlusconi had blocked the asylum applications. “I have no confirmation of this, but it seems obvious, given the brotherly relationship between Putin and Berlusconi, that all possible obstacles to granting asylum will be raised in order to slow down the procedure or make it impossible,” he said.

A spokesman for Berlusconi did not respond to requests for comment.

Two weeks ago Walter Litvinenko published an open letter on a human rights website named after Anna Politkovskaya (www.annaviva.com), the journalist and Kremlin critic murdered in Moscow in 2006. He said Berlusconi had made the Litvinenkos’ situation unbearable. Despite assurances that their case would be swiftly resolved nothing had happened, he said. “It’s clear Berlusconi is dragging this process out for as long as possible,” he added.

On Sunday the Litvinenkos spent their last euros. They bought 10 eggs. The family – including two adults over 70 and two small children – are currently sharing a tiny three-bedroom flat. There is no hot water and only two hours a day of heating. A local church gives them bread and apples; otherwise they eat pancakes.

The Litvinenkos have to pay 540 euros for next month’s rent. Currently, they say, they have no idea how to find it.

Walter Litvinenko blames Putin for the family’s misfortune. “He killed my son. He’s a sick man,” he says. Tatiana, however, refuses to criticise Putin and instead focuses on Berezovsky. “My brother defended him. But he’s clearly not interested in us.” She admits, however, that she has not asked Berezovsky for anything.

Walter hardly ever leaves the Litvinenkos’ flat, tucked away in a suburban cul-de-sac. With its windswept promenade, quiet seaside cafes and off-season feel, Senigallia is the perfect place to escape from the Russian state and its agents. There are a few other Russians, but more Bangladeshis.

Despite the tranquillity, Walter admits he is worried the same fate that befell his adored son, the renegade spy, might await him too. “There is a certain subconscious fear. In Nalchik I wasn’t afraid because I knew everybody’s faces. Here it’s different. At any moment a person could come up to you, and that would be the end.”

Additional reporting: Giancarlo Castello and Tom Kington in Rome

Friends in high places

Silvio Berlusconi is Vladimir Putin’s most ardent friend in Europe, and sees himself as the man to explain the Russian to an often perplexed west.

Their close association goes back to Berlusconi”s second stint as prime minister, in 2001-06. In April 2008 Berlusconi hosted Putin at his luxurious Sardinian villa, with Berlusconi visiting Putin’s residence near St Petersburg last year. Putin also phoned Berlusconi in his hospital bed after he was attacked and lost several teeth last year.

Soon after his release from hospital in December, after being attacked in the street by a disgruntled voter wielding a replica gothic cathedral, Berlusconi appeared sporting a Russian Federation navy jacket. The sweatshirt with its double-headed Russian eagle logo was a gift from Putin.

Ultimately, of course, the relationship is about business. Thirty per cent of Italy’s oil and gas imports already come from Russia and commercial ties between the countries have almost tripled since 2000. Tom Kington Rome

Original article

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