Going To Ground

HAD Alexander Litvinenko been cremated would so much of London now be destroyed, less a tombstone marking the spot where the Russian was laid to rest than the root of a large mushroom-shaped cloud?

Luckily, Litvinenko’s last wish was not to be turned into ash and dust.

Not that his last wishes counted for much. As the Star says, the former KGB operative killed by poison wanted to be buried in a Muslim funeral.

But authorities at Regent’s Park mosque, London, say they would not have accepted the deceased’s “radiation-ravaged body”, even though it was in a lead-lined coffin.

And Vladimir Bukovsky, Litvinenko’s friend (but who can you trust?), says his pal’s dying wish was to be buried in Chechnya when the war there is over.

For now, though, the Sun spots the Russian being placed in the ground in Highgate Cemetery, the London spot where Karl Marx resides.

“LEAK-PROOF COFFIN FOR THE NUKE SPY,” says the Sun. And we look on as a posse of burly men in long coats prepare to lower the body many feet below the London soil.

More pictures of the solemn event in the Mirror, the paper zooming in on the face of Litvinenko’s widow Maria.

In dark glasses, she looks on as her husband is lowered into the ground. She holds aloft an umbrella as the rain and fallout tumbles down about her…

Posted: 8th, December 2006 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink