Towards the end of last year, the shady world of international espionage burst on to the front of the newspapers as if from the pages of a spy novel.

We watched in horror as former Russian intelligence agent Alexander Litvinenko died, slowly, from the radioactive chemical inside him. During his illness, and following his death, we learnt more about who might have poisoned him, the blundering way they seemed to have done it, and why this exile from his home country had become a target for murder.

Litvinenko and his friends and family were in no doubt who was responsible for sending the "angel of death" to meet him. He laid the blame squarely at the door of Russian President and former KGB agent Vladimir Putin.

"Blowing up Russia" at least proves Putin had a motive. Litvinenko and his co-author describe in excruciating detail the case against the Russian secret services since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Their claim, backed with ample evidence, finds Russian spies responsible for terrorist attacks attributed to Chechen separatists. The bombs excused the war against the province and helped Putin in his pitch for the presidency, they claim.

The bigger picture, that needs more filling out, is the rise of the secret services into positions of power across the Russian state as Putin's empire took hold.

Litvinenko's death, in all its drama, needs a fuller, broader narrative. His own writing provides valuable insights into the behaviour and practices of the Russian security services - seemingly unreformed since the days of the KGB - and shows the spirit and character of the author before he was ruthlessly murdered.

  • Jack Doyle