Poisoned spy blames Putin for his death

#1

Alexander Litvinenko

Poisoned spy blames Putin for his death

LONDON - A rare radioactive substance killed an ex-KGB spy turned Kremlin critic, the British government said Friday. In a dramatic statement written before he died, the man called Russian President Vladimir Putin "barbaric and ruthless" and blamed him personally for the poisoning.

Putin, in Finland, offered his condolences for the death of Alexander Litvinenko and denied any involvement. He called the release of the deathbed statement a "political provocation" by his opponents.

Litvinenko died late Thursday at a London hospital after spending days in intensive care as doctors puzzled over what was causing his organs to fail and attacking his bone marrow and destroying his immune system.

Britain's Health Protection Agency said Friday that the radioactive element polonium-210 had been found in his urine, and the police said traces of radiation were found at Litvinenko's home and a ritzy hotel bar and sushi restaurant he visited on the day he became ill.

Police said they were treating the case as an "unexplained death" ¢¢¬¢‚¬ but not yet as a murder.

The 43-year-old Litvinenko, who fiercely criticized Putin's government from his refuge in London since 2000, told police he believed he was poisoned Nov. 1 while investigating the October slaying of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, another critic of Putin.

Litvinenko's statement, read by his friend Alex Goldfarb to reporters outside the hospital, put the blame for his death squarely on Putin.

He accused Putin of having "no respect for life, liberty or any civilized value."

"You may succeed in silencing me but that silence comes at a price. You have shown yourself to be as barbaric and ruthless as your most hostile critics have claimed," the statement said.

"You may succeed in silencing one man but the howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Mr. Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life."

Goldfarb said Litvinenko dictated the statement before he lost consciousness Tuesday, and signed it in the presence of his wife, Marina.

Putin strongly denied involvement by his government.

"A death of a man is always a tragedy and I deplore this," the Russian leader said when asked about Litvinenko during a news conference after a meeting with European Union leaders.

Putin said the fact that Litvinenko's statement was released only after his death showed it was a provocation. "It's extremely regrettable that such a tragic event as death is being used for political provocation," he said.

At a meeting Friday with Russian Ambassador Yury Fedotov at London's Foreign Office, British diplomats asked Moscow to provide all assistance necessary to a police inquiry into the death, government officials said. Putin pledged to cooperate.

Home Secretary John Reid convened the British government's crisis committee Friday to discuss the death, a Cabinet Office spokeswoman said. Prime Minister Tony Blair's Downing Street office said he was in Scotland and did not attend.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said the United States has sought information on the case from British authorities. "We have been told that they have no definitive conclusions and that they are conducting an investigation," Casey said.

The Health Protection Agency described poisoning with polonium-210 as "an unprecedented event."

"I've been in radiation sciences for 30-odd years and I'm not aware of any such incident," said Roger Cox, director of the agency's center for radiation, chemicals and environmental hazards.

The agency's chief executive, Pat Troop, said the high level of polonium-210 indicated Litvinenko "would either have to have eaten it, inhaled it or taken it in through a wound."

Troop said the agency was evaluating whether it was safe to perform an autopsy.

Peter Clarke, head of London's anti-terrorist police, said officers and military radiation experts were searching several locations in London. A police statement later said at least five locations were being checked, but did not identify two of them.

Traces of radiation had been found at Litvinenko's north London house, the sushi restaurant where he met a contact Nov. 1 and a hotel he visited earlier that day, Clarke said. The restaurant and part of the hotel were closed, with officers removing materials in heavy metal boxes.

Clarke said extensive tests by forensic toxicologists on behalf of police ¢¢¬¢‚¬ which began before Litvinenko's death ¢¢¬¢‚¬ had on Friday confirmed the presence of polonium-210.

"There is no risk to the public unless they came into close contact with the men or their meals," said Katherine Lewis, a spokeswoman for the Health Protection Agency.

Experts said small amounts of polonium-210 ¢¢¬¢‚¬ but not enough to kill someone ¢¢¬¢‚¬ are used legitimately in Britain and elsewhere for industrial purposes.

Professor Dudley Goodhead, a radiation expert at the Medical Research Council, said that "to poison someone, much larger amounts are required and this would have to be manmade, perhaps from a particle accelerator or a nuclear reactor."

Chris Lloyd, a British radiation protection adviser, said it would be relatively easy to smuggle polonium into the country, because its alpha radiation would not set off radiation detectors.

Doctors treating Litvinenko had said Thursday that they could not explain his rapid decline. They discounted earlier theories that the father of three had been poisoned with the toxic metal thallium.

Lewis, the Health Protection Agency spokeswoman, said doctors had not discovered the presence of polonium-210 in Litvinenko earlier because hospitals do not normally test for the alpha-ray radiation it emits.

University College Hospital, where Litvinenko died, said Friday it could not comment further because the case was being investigated by police.

Litvinenko's friends had little doubt about who was to blame ¢¢¬¢‚¬ Putin's regime.

They said the former spy, who sought asylum in Britain in 2000 and became a citizen, worked tirelessly to uncover corruption in Russia's Federal Security Service, the successor agency to the Soviet-era KGB, and unmask Politkovskaya's killers.

Litvinenko had worked for the KGB and then the Federal Security Service until he publicly accused his superiors in 1998 of ordering him to kill Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky. He spent nine months in jail on charges of abuse of office, but was later acquitted and moved to Britain.

In Moscow, pro-Kremlin legislators pointed at Berezovsky, who amassed a fortune in dubious privatization deals after the 1991 Soviet collapse but fled to London after falling out of favor with Putin. He has been a persistent critic of Putin and worked with Litvinenko.

Lawmakers questioned whether the two critics had a falling out and argued the Kremlin had nothing to gain from Litvinenko's death. "I think this is another game of some kind by Berezovsky," Valery Dyatlenko said on Channel One.

Litvinenko's father, Walter, said his son "fought this regime, and this regime got him."

"It was an excruciating death and he was taking it as a real man," Walter Litvinenko told reporters outside the hospital, his voice choked with emotion.

Goldfarb said the attack bore "all the hallmarks of a very professional, sophisticated and specialist operation."

Another friend, Andrei Nekrasov, said Litvinenko told him: "The bastards got me, but they won't get everybody."

#2

Radioactive traces found in spy death probe

By Peter Graff
Fri Nov 24, 6:06 PM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - British police have found traces of a rare radioactive substance at three locations in London visited by a poisoned former KGB spy, who accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of his murder from beyond the grave.

Alexander Litvinenko died on Thursday night after a three week illness that saw his hair fall out, his body waste away and his organs slowly fail. In a statement read out after his death, he accused Putin of what would be the Kremlin's first political assassination in the West since the Cold War.

"You may succeed in silencing one man. But a howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Mr Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life," he said.

Putin shrugged off the charge as a "political provocation," but tremors could be felt of what could become a diplomatic earthquake if evidence supports a Kremlin link to the killing.

Britain summoned the Russian ambassador in London to ask for help solving the case, and British officials said they had found the rare radioactive substance polonium 210 in Litvinenko's body.

"What we have is an unprecedented event in the U.K. -- that someone has apparently been deliberately been poisoned with a type of radiation," Health Protection Agency chief Pat Troop told reporters.

Police said they found the substance at Litvinenko's home and at two other London locations he visited on the day he fell ill -- a hotel where he met another ex-KGB spy visiting from Moscow, and a sushi restaurant where he met an Italian academic.

The locations were cordoned off. Police were seen removing material in a metal box from the central London sushi bar.

"POLITICAL PROOCATION"

Putin, meeting EU officials in Helsinki, insisted no evidence linked the Kremlin to the killing.

"It is a great pity that even something as tragic as a man's death is being used for political provocation," Putin said. "I hope the British authorities would not contribute to instigating political scandals. It has nothing to do with reality."

But the use of such a rare radioactive isotope -- which can be made only in a nuclear reactor -- suggested to experts that only a very sophisticated organization, if not a powerful state, could be behind the crime.

"This is not some random killing. This is not a tool chosen by a group of amateurs. These people had some serious resources behind them," Dr Andrea Sella, lecturer in chemistry at University College London, told Reuters.

Litvinenko, who became a British citizen last month, was one of a group of Putin opponents who have clustered in London, frequently attracting Moscow's scorn.

A Russian ex-spy came forward in Moscow to acknowledge that he was the man who met Litvinenko at a London hotel with another Russian the day he suddenly fell ill.

The man, Andrei Lugovoy, said in a statement they had met to discuss a business project and he had nothing to do with Litvinenko's death.

#3

Wow...and who said the KGB no longer exists....

#4

Putin has been not so secretly knocking off people for a while it seems. No suprises here.

#5

Officials probe ex-spy's poisoning death

By DAVID STRINGER, Associated Press Writer
Sat Nov 25, 9:08 AM ET

LONDON - Scotland Yard detectives on Saturday traced the final steps of a former KGB spy turned Kremlin critic after officials determined he was poisoned by a rare radioactive substance.

A cabinet council that deals with sensitive diplomatic incidents met for a third day to discuss Alexander Litvinenko's death. A meeting Friday was chaired by Britain's top law enforcement official, Home Secretary John Reid.

Litvinenko died late Thursday at a London hospital after days in intensive care as doctors puzzled over what was destroying his immune system and causing his organs to fail.

Police said they were not yet treating the case as a murder, rather as an "unexplained death."

Britain's Health Protection Agency said Friday that the radioactive element polonium-210 had been found in his urine, and the police said traces of radiation were found at Litvinenko's home and a ritzy hotel bar and sushi restaurant he visited on Nov. 1, the day he became ill.

Detectives were interviewing the hotel and restaurant staff, a Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said Saturday.

The Health Protection Agency also asked anyone who had visited the sushi bar or hotel lounge to contact Britain's health service, although the agency stressed that the risk to the public from the radioactive material found at the bar and hotel is low.

In a statement written before he died, Litvinenko called Russian President Vladimir Putin "barbaric and ruthless" and blamed him personally for the poisoning.

Putin responded by accusing his opponents of "political provocation," while calling Litvinenko's death a tragedy.

Russian Ambassador Yury Fedotov was summoned to London's Foreign Office Friday as British diplomats asked Moscow for its assistance investigating the case, government officials said. Putin has pledged to cooperate.

Litvinenko, 43, had told police he believed he had been poisoned on Nov. 1 while investigating the October slaying of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, another of Putin's critic.

Litvinenko worked for the KGB and its successor, the FSB. In 1998, he publicly accused his superiors of ordering him to kill tycoon Boris Berezovsky and spent nine months in jail from 1999 on charges of abuse of office. He was later acquitted and in 2000 sought asylum in Britain.

In Moscow, pro-Kremlin lawmakers pointed the finger at exiled Russian dissidents, claiming the death was part of a plot to discredit the Kremlin.

Russian lawmaker Valery Dyatlenko claimed Friday that Berezovsky, an exile whose asylum in Britain has enraged the Kremlin, may have been involved in the killing, seeking to discredit Putin.

"I think this is another game of some kind by Berezovsky," Dyatlenko said Friday on Russia's state-run Channel One television.

When reached by The Associated Press on Saturday, Berezovsky declined to comment on the accusations leveled by Dyatlenko.

In Israel, Russian exile Leonid Nevzlin said Litvinenko's death could be linked to investigations into charges laid against ex-shareholders and former owners of the Yukos oil company.

Nevzlin ¢¢¬¢‚¬ a former shareholder in the Yukos oil company ¢¢¬¢‚¬ told Israel's daily Haaretz newspaper on Friday that Litvinenko had visited him for a meeting.

He said he had passed on documents related to the campaign of criminal charges and tax claims against Yukos shareholders and officials, including now-jailed founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Nevzlin told the newspaper he feared the ex-agent's death could be connected to the probe.

Nevzlin was charged by Russian prosecutors with organizing murders, fraud and tax evasion, and lives in self-imposed exile in Israel to evade prosecution.

Polonium-210 occurs naturally and is present in the environment at very low concentrations, but can represent a radiation hazard if ingested.

Pat Troop, chief executive of the Health Protection Agency, said the high level of polonium-210 indicated Litvinenko "would either have to have eaten it, inhaled it or taken it in through a wound."

Troop said the agency was evaluating whether it was safe to perform an autopsy.

Scientists claimed small amounts of polonium-210 ¢¢¬¢‚¬ but not enough to kill someone ¢¢¬¢‚¬ were used legitimately in Britain for industrial purposes and easily available.

To be used to kill, however, "much larger amounts are required and this would have to be manmade ... from a particle accelerator or a nuclear reactor," said Medical Research Council expert Dudley Goodhead.

#6

Radiation on airliners may be from poisoned spy

November 29, 2006

LONDON, England (AP) -- Radiation was found on two British Airways jets during an investigation into the poisoning death of a former Russian spy, and the airline Wednesday urged tens of thousands of passengers to contact health authorities.

Two Boeing 767s at London's Heathrow Airport tested positive and a third was grounded in Moscow awaiting examination, British Airways said. The airline said "the risk to public health is low" but that it was attempting to contact to 33,000 passengers who have flown on the jets since October 25.

Britain has been careful not to blame the Kremlin for the death of Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent and fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. But criticism of Putin's increasing authoritarianism has intensified since the poisoning -- even within Prime Minister Tony Blair's Cabinet.

The tests were conducted after the British government contacted British Airways on Tuesday night and told the airline to ground the jets and allow investigators looking into Litvinenko's death to examine them for possible radiation.

The search of the planes came as investigators checked places Litvinenko and others who met with him had visited in the weeks before he fell ill November 1. Litvinenko had said before he died that a group of Russian contacts who met him that day had traveled to London from Moscow.

Authorities would not say if the radiation on board the two jets was polonium-210. High doses of polonium-210 -- a rare radioactive element usually made in specialized nuclear facilities -- were found in Litvinenko's body, and traces of radiation have been found at six sites in London connected with the inquiry into his November 23 death.

All three Boeing 767s had been on the London-Moscow route, British Airways said. In the last three weeks, the planes had also traveled to routes across Europe including Barcelona, Frankfurt and Athens. About 33,000 passengers had traveled on 221 flights on those planes, said Kate Gay, an airline spokeswoman. Three thousand crew and airport personnel had contact with the three planes.

The airline has published the flights affected on its Web site, and advised customers who took the flights to contact a special help-line set up by the British Health Ministry. (Flight list)

"We want to ensure the absolute health of our passengers," Gay said, adding that the airline was working closely with police.

British Airways said it would not publish a list of passengers who had used the planes. It said data protection rules meant it could not even if it wanted to.

Following Litvinenko's death, more than 1,300 people called a health hot line over concerns they might be at risk from polonium, which is deadly in tiny amounts if ingested or inhaled. Sixty-eight have been referred to health authorities, the Health Protection Agency said. Twenty-one have been referred to a special clinic as a precaution. The tests should take about a week.

Italian security expert Mario Scaramella, who was one of the last people to meet with Litvinenko before the former spy fell ill, said tests cleared him of radioactive contamination.

Scaramella came from Rome and met Litvinenko at a sushi bar in London on November 1 -- the day the former intelligence agent first reported the symptoms.

"I am fine," Scaramella told The Associated Press by telephone. "I am not contaminated and have not contaminated anybody else."

Scaramella returned to London to undergo tests and talk with the police Tuesday. He said he is in security protection and refused to say where he was. He said he had been cleared of any involvement in Litvinenko's death.

More than three dozen staff members at the two hospitals that treated Litvinenko will be tested for radioactive contamination, Britain's Health Protection Agency said.

The agency said 106 staff at Barnet General Hospital and University College Hospital had been assessed for possible exposure, and 49 would have their urine tested.

On his deathbed, Litvinenko, 43, blamed Putin for his poisoning. Putin has strongly denied the charge.

Blair said police were determined to find out who was responsible for Litvinenko's death.

"The police investigation will proceed, and I think people should know that there is no diplomatic or political barrier in the way of that investigation," the prime minister said. "It is obviously a very, very serious matter indeed. We are determined to find out what happened and who is responsible."

Media reports in Britain and Russia on Wednesday said that Litvinenko had been engaged in smuggling nuclear substances out of Russia.

The Independent newspaper reported that Litvinenko told Scaramella on the day he fell ill that he had organized the smuggling of nuclear material for his former employers at Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB. The newspaper reported that Litvinenko said he had smuggled radioactive material to Zurich in 2000.

But Scaramella told the AP that he had been misquoted by the newspaper.

"He (Litvinenko) wanted to see me because he knew about smuggling of nuclear material, but as far as I know he was never involved in nuclear smuggling," he said.

Scaramella said he showed Litvinenko e-mails from a confidential source identifying the possible killers of Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya and listing other potential targets for assassination -- including himself and Litvinenko.

#7

Spy death radiation alert widens

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The number of sites contaminated in the Russian spy radiation alert has doubled to around 12 and is likely to rise again, British Home Secretary John Reid said.

He also disclosed that a fourth jetliner -- three British Airways planes had been named the previous day -- had also been caught up in the scare.

That Russian aircraft was later given a clean bill of health for traces of alpha radiation -- the type emitted by polonium 210, the deadly radioactive element with which former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned.

Meanwhile Irish police announced Thursday they were launching an investigation in to the possible poisoning of Yegor Gaidar, architect of Russia's market reforms. (Full story)

Gaidar, 50, became violently ill and was rushed to a hospital in Ireland, but was improving in a Moscow hospital Thursday.

Also on Thursday a coroner formally opened an inquest into the poisoning of Litvinenko, who died on November 23 after falling ill more than three weeks earlier. It was quickly adjourned so police could continue their investigation, but three pathologists were expected to participate in an autopsy Friday at Royal London Hospital.

Reid told the House of Commons that the total number of locations in London found to have been contaminated with radiation had doubled.

He said: "To date, around 24 venues have or are being monitored and experts have confirmed traces of contamination at around 12 of these venues."

Scotland Yard confirmed the identity of 11 of the 12 locations where traces of contamination have been discovered. These are -- all in London: the Itsu sushi restaurant in Piccadilly, the Millennium Hotel in Grosvenor Square, Litvinenko's home, Barnet General Hospital, University College Hospital, 25 Grosvenor Street, 58 Grosvenor Street, 7 Down Street, the Sheraton Hotel in Park Lane and the two grounded BA aircraft at Heathrow. The identity of the 12th location is unclear.

As examinations of the three British Airways aircraft continued, Reid said: "There is one other Russian plane that we know, that we think we would be interested in.

"There may be other aeroplanes of which we don't at this stage know."

Reid had during his remarks named a Boeing 737, leased by the Russian airline Transaero, as "of interest."

The Transaero jet arrived at Heathrow from Moscow on Thursday shortly before Reid's speech, but airline officials said no radioactivity was discovered aboard.

In Moscow, a spokesman for Transaero -- the private airline with two planes being examined in the investigation -- said one of their aircraft in London had been examined and no radiation was found.

The flight was cleared to leave, spokesman Sergei Byhal told CNN.

However, due to concerns voiced about the rest of the Transaero fleet, Byhal said, Russia's Emergencies Ministry would conduct radiation testing on all of their planes in Russia.

As for the British Airways plane at the Domodedovo airport in Moscow, a spokeswoman for Russia's Federal Consumer Rights and Human Well Being Service told CNN Thursday that samples were taken from it and delivered to a laboratory.

The results of those tests will be available Friday, she said.

Marina Shlyatova, British Airways spokeswoman in Moscow, said they are "waiting for confirmation from the British government that is not dangerous to fly back to London" before sending the Boeing 767 back to Heathrow.

British Airways has said that "the risk to public health is low," but it has published a list of the flights affected on its Web site and told customers on these flights to contact a special help-line set up by the Health Ministry. (Flight list)

BA said an estimated 33,000 passengers and 3,000 staff were involved in the alert relating to their aircraft, involving 221 flights to 10 destinations from October 25 to November 29. The airline said it was continuing to make every effort to contact those involved, adding that it had taken calls from 2,500 customers on a special helpline by 9:00 a.m. Thursday. (Watch how worried you should be about polonium poisoning)

Prime Minister Tony Blair has said the former Russian spy's death is a "very, very serious" matter and that no "diplomatic or political" barrier will stand in the way of the police investigation.

At the opening of Litvinenko's inquest in London Thursday morning, his close friend Alex Goldfarb said the discovery of radioactivity on the BA flights further reinforced his suspicion that Moscow was behind the poisoning.

Ex-KGB man Litvinenko, a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died last week. In his deathbed message, the former spy accused Putin of being behind his poisoning. The Kremlin has denied any responsibility.

Goldfarb told the UK's Press Association: "If you look at the flight numbers BA have released, the first flight they are interested in was five days before the poisoning -- the Moscow-Heathrow flight on October 25.

"This tells you that the police are looking for the ways of delivery of this material into London and this reinforces the theory that the origin of this material that killed Alexander was in Moscow.

"We still believe this is a murder perpetrated by agents of Russia's intelligence services."

Reid said there are between 130 and 150 sites in the United Kingdom where Polonium 210 might be used, but there were no reports of theft from any of the sites.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) has said the health risk to tens of thousands of air passengers caught up in the radiation alert is likely to be extremely low.

Chief executive Pat Troop said that as alpha radiation cannot pass through skin or even paper, the risk of contamination is "likely to be low."

#8

Ex-Russian PM may be poisoned; comes after ex-KGB spy's fatal poisoning

LONDON - Traces of radiation have been found at a dozen sites in Britain and five jets were being investigated for possible contamination as authorities widened their investigation into the poisoning of a former Russian spy, the country¢¢¬¢ž¢s top law enforcement official told Parliament on Thursday.

A coroner formally opened an inquest into the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, who died on Nov. 23 after falling ill more than three weeks earlier. It was quickly adjourned so police could continue their investigation, but three pathologists were expected to participate in an autopsy Friday at Royal London Hospital.

In Moscow, meanwhile, doctors said they believed Yegor Gaidar, a former premier and head of a liberal opposition party, may also have been poisoned during a conference Nov. 24 in Ireland, his spokesman Valery Natarov told The Associated Press.

Gaidar, 50, became violently ill and was rushed to a hospital in Ireland, but has since returned to Russia where he was improving.

Cause of Gaidar's illness unknown
Natarov told the AP that doctors were unable to ¢¢¬…œdetect any natural substance known to them¢¢¬‚ in Gaidar¢¢¬¢ž¢s body, leading them to believe he may have been poisoned. However, they have not been able to determine what caused specifically his illness and have asked medical experts in Ireland for more information on his condition immediately after he became sick.

A spokeswoman for the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said Thursday it had not been contacted by the Russian authorities about the doctors¢¢¬¢ž¢ opinions. A day earlier, the department said authorities had ¢¢¬…œreceived no evidence of anything untoward¢¢¬‚ about the case.

High doses of polonium-210 ¢¢¬¢‚¬ a rare radioactive element usually made in specialized nuclear facilities ¢¢¬¢‚¬ were found in Litvinenko¢¢¬¢ž¢s body after his death. Investigators are now checking places visited by the former KGB agent and others who had contact with him in the weeks before he fell ill on Nov. 1.

Home Secretary John Reid told Parliament that ¢¢¬…œaround 24 venues¢¢¬‚ have been or are being monitored as part of the investigation, and that experts had confirmed traces of radioactive contamination at ¢¢¬…œaround 12 of these venues.¢¢¬‚ He did not say whether the radioactivity found at the sites was polonium-210.

Reid told lawmakers that officials believed the risk to public health to be low. He said 1,700 calls had been made to the National Health Service, and 69 people were referred to the Health Protection Agency.

Of those, 18 who may have been exposed to polonium-210 have been referred to specialist clinics, but all urine tests so far have been negative, he said.

Planes scoured for clues

Litvinenko also said before he died that a group of Russian contacts who met with him on Nov. 1 had traveled to London from Moscow, prompting the searches of planes.

Three British Airways planes ¢¢¬¢‚¬ two at Heathrow Airport and one in Moscow ¢¢¬¢‚¬ are being investigated, and Reid said that a Boeing 737, leased by the Russian airline Transaero, was also ¢¢¬…œof interest.¢¢¬‚

Besides that, ¢¢¬…œthere is one other Russian plane that we know of that we think we may be interested in,¢¢¬‚ Reid added. He did not elaborate, except to say that it is Russian.

He said early tests of two of the three British Airways planes showed low levels of a radioactive substance. The third BA plane remains on the ground in Moscow, and has not yet been tested. BA will make a decision whether to bring the plane back from Moscow, he said.

The Transaero jet arrived at Heathrow from Moscow on Thursday, and airline officials said no radioactivity was discovered aboard. ¢¢¬…œLocal security did not find on Transaero planes any toxic substance,¢¢¬‚ said Irena Borodulina, a spokeswoman for Transaero.

More radiation checks

The Russian Transport Ministry announced increased radiation checks on international flights and at international airports across the country Thursday.

The three British planes were on the London-Moscow route, but also made stops in Barcelona, Frankfurt and Athens over a period of three weeks. Thousands of passengers aboard some 200 flights have been asked to report any symptoms of radiation poisoning.

It was not immediately clear whether the traces found onboard could have come from passengers who may have come into contact with Litvinenko, or whether a radioactive substance could have been smuggled on board. Authorities refused to specify whether the substance found was polonium-210.

Around 33,000 passengers and 3,000 crew and airport personnel had contact with the 221 flights on the three British planes, said airline spokeswoman Kate Gay. She said the government contacted the airline but would not say what aroused its suspicions.

UK carrier: ¢¢¬‹Å“Risk to public health is low¢¢¬¢ž¢

British Airways has said that ¢¢¬…œthe risk to public health is low,¢¢¬‚ but it has published a list of the flights affected on its Web site and told customers on these flights to contact a special help-line set up by the Health Ministry.

International Atomic Energy Agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said Britain has not asked the U.N. watchdog agency for help in tracing the polonium, ¢¢¬…œbut we stand ready to assist, and we communicated that.¢¢¬‚

The 43-year-old Litvinenko, a fierce Kremlin critic, had blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for his poisoning from his deathbed.

He told police he believed he had been targeted for investigating the October killing of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, another critic of Putin¢¢¬¢ž¢s government who was gunned down in her Moscow apartment building.

Moscow denies involvement

The Russian government has denied any involvement in either death.

Gaidar, a liberal economist whose moderate criticism of the Kremlin is largely limited to economic issues, served briefly as prime minister in the 1990s under President Boris Yeltsin in post-Soviet Russia¢¢¬¢ž¢s most liberal and democratically oriented government. While he is one of the leaders of a liberal political party, liberals have been severely sidelined under Putin and he is not prominent.

Gaidar is unpopular among many Russians who blame the Western-backed economic policies he pursued as prime minister for the decline in their living standards following the Soviet collapse.

His daughter, Maria, is a well-known liberal youth activist and vociferous Kremlin critic.

#9

Spy death post-mortem under way

LONDON, England (CNN) -- A post-mortem examination on the body of poisoned ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko was being carried out in London Friday with special precautions being taken because of the nature of his death.

Three pathologists were attending the autopsy at the Royal London hospital, CNN's European Political Editor Robin Oakley said.

One pathologist represented the UK government, another was attending for Litvinenko's wife, Marina, and the third was an independent specialist who would report to the defense team in case of a criminal prosecution in the case.

The scientists wore protective clothing and radiation levels were being monitored constantly during the examination.

Health experts said Litvinenko had ingested a significant amount of polonium-210, the highly radioactive isotope that killed him over a three-week period.

The funeral of the 43-year-old former KGB agent would be held soon after the autopsy, his friend Alex Goldfarb said.

Also on Friday, Britain's Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett met her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Amman, Jordan, and repeated the British government's request for co-operation from the Russian authorities in the investigation of Litvinenko's death.

In a deathbed accusation, Litvinenko blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for his poisoning, a charge Putin strongly denied.

Lavrov restated earlier assurances that Moscow would cooperate fully, Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman said.

The investigation into the poisoning of Litvinenko had focused increasingly on Moscow after a radiation alert on several aircraft that flew to the Russian capital.

EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso voiced concern about the case. "We have a problem with Russia. In fact, we have several problems. Too many people have been killed and we don't know who killed them," he said on Thursday.

Friends of the former spy said the discovery of radioactivity on British Airways planes reinforced further claims that Russia's security agents were behind the poisoning.

One of those planes, which was grounded at Moscow, was due to fly into London's Heathrow Airport Friday for tests.

British media reports said Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell had taken advice from the Health Protection Agency after learning she travelled on one of the jets at the center of the investigation.

Jowell took a British Airways flight with British Olympics chief Sebastian Coe to Barcelona this month on an Olympics fact-finding visit to the Spanish city.

The Litvinenko investigation had gathered pace in London Thursday.

The inquest into his death was opened and adjourned at St. Pancras Coroner's Court in north London where Andrew Reid confirmed it appeared as though he had been exposed to, or administered polonium-210.

Home Secretary John Reid revealed that the number of contaminated sites had doubled from six to 12 and was likely to rise again.

The FBI said it had been asked to join the British investigation and that its experts in weapons of mass destruction will assist with some of the scientific analysis.

Meanwhile Irish police announced they were launching an investigation in to the possible poisoning of Yegor Gaidar, architect of Russia's market reforms.

Gaidar, 50, became violently ill at a conference in Ireland and was rushed to a hospital there, but was said to be improving in a Moscow hospital.

Another attendee at the conference said Friday that Gaidar was ill before he arrived in Ireland.

British Airways has said that "the risk to public health is low," but it has published a list of the flights affected on its Web site and told customers on these flights to contact a special help-line set up by the Health Ministry.

On Friday the airlines said on its Web site that one of the three BA 767s removed from service following the discovery of low traces of a radioactive substance has been given the all clear by UK government agencies.

The Health Protection Agency (HPA) told BA it does not believe that overall passengers on this aircraft -- registration G-BZHA -- were at risk over the past month. This aircraft had flown 72 of the 221 flights identified.

BA said an estimated 33,000 passengers and 3,000 staff were involved in the alert relating to their aircraft, involving the 221 flights to 10 destinations from October 25 to November 29. The airline said it was continuing to make every effort to contact those involved.

The head of Russia's state atomic energy agency Rosatom, Sergei Kiriyenko, told the government daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta that Russia produces only 8 grams of Polonium 210 a month and the material cannot be obtained illegally there.

Kiriyenko declined to say how polonium was produced but said nuclear reactors such as the Russian RMBK or the Canadian CANDU were needed to make it.

Reid said there are between 130 and 150 sites in the United Kingdom where Polonium 210 might be used, but there were no reports of theft from any of the sites.

The UK Health Protection Agency (HPA) has said the health risk to tens of thousands of air passengers caught up in the radiation alert is likely to be extremely low.

Chief executive Pat Troop said that as alpha radiation cannot pass through skin or even paper, the risk of contamination is "likely to be low."

#10

Friend says he knows who poisoned former Soviet spy

December 4, 2006

LONDON, England (AP) -- A U.S.-based friend of a poisoned former Soviet KGB agent said he had given police the name of a suspect he believes orchestrated the killing of Alexander Litvinenko.

"The truth is, we have an act of international terrorism on our hands. I happen to believe I know who is behind the death of my friend Sasha (Litvinenko) and the reason for his murder," Yuri Shvets said in an exclusive interview with the AP by telephone from the United States.

Shvets, also a former KGB officer, said he had known Litvinenko, who died in London after he was exposed to a rare radioactive element, since 2002 and had spoken to him on November 23, the day he died.

He said he was questioned by Scotland Yard officers and an FBI agent in Washington last week. A police official in London, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the case, confirmed officers had interviewed Shvets.

The official also said police expected to travel to Moscow within days, where a team of nine officers planned to interview several people, including Andrei Lugovoi, another former spy who met Litvinenko on November 1 -- the day he fell ill.

Home Secretary John Reid said Sunday the inquiry was expanding outside of Britain and would go wherever "the police take it."

Shvets declined to confirm the name of the person he had told police he believed was behind Litvinenko's death, or to offer details of a document he said he had given to the British officers.

"This is first hand information, this is not gossip. I gave them the first hand information that I have," Shvets told the AP.

He said he was not prepared to disclose further details, because of concern he could disrupt the inquiry.

"I want this inquiry to get to the bottom of it, otherwise they will be killing people all over the world -- in London, in Washington and in other places," Shvets said. "I want to give the police the time and space to crack this case, to allow them to find those behind this assassination, the last thing I want to do is give a warning to those who are responsible."

Shvets told the AP he had met Litvinenko in 2002, when both men were investigating incidents in the Ukraine. He said Litvinenko had introduced him to Mario Scaramella, an Italian security consultant. Scaramella met Litvinenko at a central London sushi bar on November 1 and has since been hospitalized.

At the Center for Counterintelligence and Security Studies, in Washington, the former agent has spoken about his past as a KGB spy.

Shvets, who lives in Washington, said he was away from his home and in the U.S. on vacation, but would not confirm his precise location because of concern for his safety.

"I want to survive until the time we have a criminal case in relation to Sasha's death brought before a court in London," Shvets told the AP.

In a separate statement issued through Tom Mangold, a London-based former British Broadcasting Corp. reporter and friend for 15 years, Shvets denied claims published Sunday in Britain's Observer newspaper that he had been involved in the drafting of a dossier on Russian oil company Yukos.

Former Yukos shareholder Leonid Nevzlin, a Russian exile living in Israel, told the AP last week that Litvinenko had given him a document related to Yukos and said he believed the agent's killing was tied to his investigations into the company.

Mangold said Shvets had denied the newspaper report, which said he had examined charges filed by Russian prosecutors against Yukos officials and shareholders, handing his findings to Litvinenko.

Toxicologists found polonium-210, a rare radioactive substance, in Litvinenko's body before he died in London. Results of a post mortem examination on the 43-year-old's body are expected later this week.

Scaramella was undergoing hospital tests Sunday after he showed lower levels of the same radioactive substance. University College Hospital in a statement he was well and showing no external symptoms.

In an interview with Italy's RAI TG1 evening television news Scaramella said doctors had told him that his body contains five times the dose of polonium-210 considered deadly. "So my mood isn't the best," he told the channel.

At their sushi bar meeting, Scaramella told Litvinenko an e-mail he received from a source named the purported killers of Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was gunned down on October 7 at her Moscow apartment building. The e-mail reportedly said that he and Litvinenko -- a friend of the reporter -- were also on the hit list.

Litvinenko reported feeling unwell on November 1 and died three weeks later, his body withered, his hair fallen out and his organs ravaged.

Britain's Health Protection Agency said Sunday 27 people have now been referred for tests for possible radiation exposure. (Watch why British officials say there is no threat to public health )

Reid planned to discuss the case Monday at a meeting of European interior ministers in Brussels.

Litvinenko's funeral is expected to take place in London, but because of the levels of radiation in his body, the coffin will be sealed, Litvinenko's friend Alex Goldfarb said.

Britain's Sunday Times newspaper quoted Lugovoi on Sunday as saying he had also been contaminated with polonium-210, a claim contradicted by a report in Russia's Kommersant newspaper on Saturday.

Lugovoi was quoted as telling the Russian newspaper he and his family had tested for traces of radiation and been passed as "absolutely clean."

He denied that he and two business associates, Dmitri Kovtun and Vyacheslav Sokolenko, who met Litvinenko together on November 1, were involved in Litvinenko's death.

"We suspect that someone has been trying to frame us," the Sunday Times quoted Lugovoi as saying. "Someone passed this stuff onto us ... to point the finger at us and distract the police." He did not say whether he had fallen ill.