Retired French GIGN officer Paul Barril says he not only knows how Alexander Litvinenko was assassinated, but his handler exiled tycoon Boris Berezovsky was killed to keep him quiet

This exclusive interview is appearing first on RI

Two weeks ago, author and journalist William Dunkerly broke a story on OpEd News concerning new information about the 2006 death of ex-FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London. We subsequently covered the story on RI.

The accusations are being made by Paul Barril, a retired captain in the French gendarmerie nationale (similar to internal troops in Russia or national guard in some countries) who had a long career in special forces (GIGN) and counter-intelligence, and is well known in France.

Since his retirement Barril has been involved with a number of private security agencies. Currently he is a partner in the Nadjadi Group, courtesy of whom this exclusive interview was obtained.

Barril is also a figure of controversy, having been connected to a few scandals. Some have raised questions surrounding his service as an advisor to the Rwandan government at the time of the 1994 genocide in that country. However, he strongly maintains he played no role in any crimes.

During his long special forces career, Barril claims he "arrested 115 people, being involved in the surrender of 61 madmen, neutralized 17 armed people without using weapons, and freed over 450 hostages."

In this exclusive interview, Barril says he has evidence that an Italian man, Mr. Scaramella, as well as Chechen associates of Boris Berezovsky in collaboration with the CIA and MI6, conspired to kill FSB defector Alexander Litvinenko as part of an operation to frame Vladimir Putin, the FSB and the Russian Federation.

He says that Andrei Lugovoi - accused by Britain in the matter of Litvinenko's death and now a member of the Russian Duma - was being courted by Litvinenko for information and that it was actually Litvinenko who invited Lugovoi to the meeting at which he was allegedly poisoned.

Mr. Barril attacked the secrecy surrounding the results of the British investigation, and their failure to investigate Scaramella's contact with Litvinenko prior to his death.

Barril also believes Boris Berezovsky was subsequently killed due to his intimate knowledge of this and other anti-Russian covert operations coupled with his increasingly erratic behavior and recklessness with the media.

The CIA operation to smear and discredit Russia in general and Vladimir Putin in particular, in which Berezovsky and Litvinenko were both involved, is codenamed Operation Beluga, according to the former commando.

The two men were also connected to international banker and alleged CIA operative Bill Browder.

If an impartial investigator is appointed, Barril says he he will release all evidence he and his partners have obtained on the case, and he suggests former UN prosecutor Carla Del Ponte for this role.

These accusations have the potential to blow wide open this real life spy-murder mystery which continues to haunt the front pages 10 years after the event.