TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SKY (news)

As London wakes to the news that former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko has died, the media body count has only just begun.

For over a week Litvinenko proved a formidable opponent for the Russian Government, fighting a battle in the land that timezones forgot ... the desperate world of round the clock, tv, print, radio, web and commuter news.

Conducted from his hospital bed, Litvinenko and comrades executed a powerful PR offensive which now threatens to derail the formerly close diplomatic relations between the world's global governments and President Vladimir Putin’s Russian regime.

Litvinenko has long been a vocal opponent of Putin’s leadership, and while the President’s press men dubbed any suggestion of their boss's involvement in his death as "clearly mad", the world's media - eager to take the helm as Hollywood directors of their own real-life spy caper - have smelt high profile political blood, a crisis at the very heart of the Russian government and, most importantly, rising viewing figures.

By embracing the modern media and drip-feeding them every peak and trough of his health, every spit and cough of his shady CV, shrewd Litvinenko used his last few days to torture Putin in the most public way. The former Soviet spy and his friend Alex Goldfarb, encouraged daily media updates, gave access to the hospital bed and supplied press with images. It was a slick and simple PR attack which resulted in round the clock coverage for Litvinenko and a barrage of embarrasment for the Russian government, who in the eyes of many, are guilty by implication.

For over a week now we've been spoonfed every gruesome detail, not only of his slow and shocking demise, but of tales of the sinister Soviet Secret Service, a ruthless Russian government, and Litvinenko’s public and private power-struggles with arch enemy and furry cat stroking President Putin. Yes, its the Russian Premier who, guilty or not, is the villain of this media pantomime. As cinemas across the world revel in a wave of Bond-mania, Putin is our real-life Blofeld, our Goldfinger, our SPECTRE. Far from being positioned as a legitimate global leader, switch on your TV and you'll be reminded that he was, in a previous life, Head of the KGB for 15 years - a grisly business that isn't for the likes of a coiffered, toothy-grinned baby-kissing PM.

Whatever the outcome of Scotland Yard's investigation - if there ever is an outcome - Litvinenko has succesfully used his protracted death rattle to deliver a blow at the heart of the leadership he has come to hate. It’s unlikely that blow will prove fatal, but it will undoubtedly ignite an uncomfortable media autopsy in which the rib cage of Russia's shady government underworld will be cracked open, pawed over and disected in the coming weeks.