Sushi is as sushi does

Not long ago and after many previous death threats, Russian journalist and outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin's government, Anna Politkovskaya, was found shot dead at her apartment building on Putin's birthday. At the time, she was working on a story about the Russia's use of torture in Chechnya. Politkovskaya had previously been poisoned in 2004, an attempt that failed to produce the desired result. Russian authorities promised a "thorough investigation" of her execution.

To put it lightly, more than a few believed that promises of such an investigation would go unfulfilled. One of those is Alexander Litvinenko, a former lieutenant colonel in Russia's FSB or Federal Security Service who gained asylum in Britain six years ago and who was also a critic of Putin's reign of terror in Chechnya. He was investigating the death of Politkovskaya and has now taken ill from thallium poisoning after meeting an informant at a sushi restaurant in London. He is reportedly in serious condition with a 50-50 chance of survival.

That damned sushi. Sushi, you see, was claimed to be responsible for Viktor Yushchenko's dioxin poisoning in 2004, back when he was running against the Russian-backed candidate Viktor Yanukovich.