Spy convergence: Litvinenko and Le Chiffre

In one of those uncanny coincidences (and something that makes one feel as if one has stepped into a time warp), former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko was murdered by radioctive poisoning on the same week that Casino Royale opened.

Litvinenko is now a former spy by virtue of his death, because there is probably not such a thing as a former spy in Vlad's eyes. He suffered a horrible death.

Maria sent several update links to the Litvinenko story (see first link above) while Wretchard's posting on The return of SMERSH

Litvineko died gamer than the fictional Le Chiffre. His last words were: "The bastards got me, they won't get us all".

They were all real. Rosa Klebb. "Red" Grant. Le Chiffre. Not literally but as archetypes of something we prefer to forget existed. Bolshevik priests. The angels of revolution. Men without pity and often - except in Le Chiffre's case - without fear. And in an age where Political Correctness has covered their tracks, our sole authentic glimpse of these monsters survives only in fiction. We are told that these monsters never existed; but the truth is that they never died.

Jim Geraghty has more.
Update: From the ministry of misinformation? Radio station Echo Moskvy reported Friday that Litvinenko converted to Islam. Wha??
Update, Sunday Nov. 26, via Larwyn, How To Kill A Spy

The same man he claims he was ordered to assassinate has a PR firm at the ready when he dies? How convenient.

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In a lighter mode, confronted with the new bare-knuckles Bond, the old Bonds are complaining: Pierce Brosnan Offended By Way New James Bond Holds Gun, and Roger Moore thinks "no actor has brought the pithy elegance befitting 007 since 1979's Moonraker".

If Roger thinks "pithy elegance" is what the world needs, he should have Bond working at the UN. Nothing works as well as a pithy, strongly-worded letter to stop the evil guys. While you're holding your gun just so, of course.

Meanwhile here at the ranch, the NYT is still arriving even when I've been asking them to cancel for 5 consecutive weeks. None of my pithy elegant emails, letters and calls have had any effect.

They're persistent, alright. Too bad Le Chiffre's not available.

(technorati tags Alexander Litvinenko spy Vladimir Putin Casino Royale James Bond)