Counter terrorism officers from Scotland Yard are now investigating the poisoning of a former KGB colonel who is now living in Britain.
It is suspected that Alexander Litvinenko, 41, an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was deliberately poisoned with the toxic chemical thallium.
Mr Litvinenko said that he was investigating the recent murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya and he claimed that he met with a contact at a sushi bar in Piccadilly on November 1, who provided him with documents containing names of people who may have been involved in her murder.
Mr Litvinenko fell ill after this meeting, becoming seriously ill two weeks later. He is currently being treated in intensive care at University College Hospital in London, where he is reportedly under armed.
According to reports, he has been given a 50/50 chance of surviving the next four weeks.
On Monday, Scotland Yard confirmed that they were making "extensive inquiries" during their investigation into the poisoning, including interviews, toxicology tests and studying CCTV footage.
A spokesman for the Kremlin dismissed allegations that it was involved in the poisoning of Mr Litvinenko.
Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service - a successor to the KGB - has also issued a statement denying any involvement.
Thallium is an odorless and tasteless chemical and was used in the past as both a rat poison and ant killer. However, it is no longer used in a number of countries because of safety concerns.
It has several industrial uses, including the manufacture of optical glass, low-temperature thermometers and green fireworks.
Symptoms of poisoning include nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea. Hair loss is one of the most distinctive effects of thallium poisoning.

Source:-4NI.co.uk

Evidence of 'radioactive cocktail'
Marcus Leroux
The full extent of the threat to Alexander Litvinenko’s life emerged yesterday as toxicologists revealed that the former Russian spy had probably been the victim of a radioactive poison.

When Professor John Henry emerged from University College London Hospital yesterday morning to address the media scrum, he threw the Litvinenko saga into a new period of intrigue. He said that there was evidence of a toxic substance in addition to the one already found.

“He’s also got symptoms consistent with other poisonous concoctions. It could be a radioactive cocktail,” he said, adding, “This is the worst case I have ever seen.”

Experts said the radioactivity increased the chances of Mr Litvinenko contracting cancer.

Professor Henry added that while radioactive thallium is available in every hospital, it was only used in trace amounts, and that the loss of an amount substantial enough to poison somebody would be “immediately noticed”.

Supporters of Mr Litvinenko took this as further evidence of Russian state involvement.

Alex Goldfarb, the friend who brought Mr Litvinenko to Britain in the first place, reported last night that his condition appeared to be deteriorating.

“It gives me a tremendous feeling of personal failure,” he said. “When I brought him here I told him he was safe.”

Timesonline

LONDON -- A former Russian spy who died in an apparent poisoning signed a statement in the waning hours of his life blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin and accusing him of having "no respect for life, liberty or any civilized value," friends said Friday,

Putin's government strongly denied involvement, calling the allegation "nothing but nonsense."

Alexander Litvinenko's statement, read to reporters outside the hospital where he died late Thursday, addressed the Russian leader directly.

"You have shown yourself to be unworthy of your office, to be unworthy of the trust of civilized men and women," Litvinenko said in a statement read by his friend Alex Goldfarb.

"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 had dictated the statement before he lost consciousness on Tuesday, and signed it in the presence of his wife, Marina.

"It's so silly and unbelievable that it's not worth comment," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in Helsinki, Finland, where Putin is attending a summit with European Union leaders.

"Now the case will be investigated by relevant British services and we hope that those who are standing behind this case will be brought to justice," he added.

Litvinenko, a former KGB agent and critic of the Russian government, suffered heart failure late Thursday after days in intensive care, London's University College Hospital said. Doctors said the cause of his illness remained a mystery.

Friends said Litvinenko had been on a quest to uncover corruption in Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB, and unmask the killers of another trenchant critic of the Putin's government, the investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

"He was completely convinced it was the FSB. There was no doubt in his mind who it was," Andrei Nekrasov told The Associated Press.

Nekrasov, who spoke to Litvinenko just before he lost consciousness, said Litvinenko had told him: "The bastards got me, but they won't get everybody."

Washington Post

This story would make an interesting book! I am constantly amazed at the truth being much stranger than fiction, but in this case, I doubt the truth will ever be know. In that case, a surprise ending?



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