Former Russian agent killed by 'radiation': Britain

India
Former Russian agent killed by 'radiation': Britain
By DPA, Nov 25, 2006 - 5:30:41 AM

London, Nov 24 - Former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko died from ingesting a large dose of radioactive material known as Polonium 210, British health authorities said Friday.

Large quantities of alpha radiation had been traced in his urine, said Roger Cox, director of the health watchdog HPA here.

As a result, people who had been in contact with Litvinenko, and the places where he visited before the attack on him earlier this month, were being searched for radioactive substances.

'We are being faced with the unprecedented event in the UK of someone being poisoned by a type of radiation,' said Pat Troop, chief executive of the HPA.

Litvinenko, who died in a London hospital late Thursday, had shortly beforehand firmly blamed Russian leader Vladimir Putin for what happened to him, it was disclosed Friday.

In a message dictated two days before his death, Litvinenko, 43, 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.'

'May God forgive you for what you have done,' added the statement, which was read out by his friend Alexander Goldfarb to the press on Friday.

Speaking at a Russia-EU meeting in Helsinki, Putin, rejecting any accusations of official involvement in Litvinenko's death, offered his condolences to his family.

Questioning the genuineness of the Litvinenko statement, Putin said: 'Why was this note not published when he was still alive?'

He called Litvinenko's death a tragedy but its circumstances were 'not worth any further comments. The death of a person is always a tragedy. I regret the death and express my regret to the family.'

While Russian dissidents and opponents of Putin pointed the finger of blame at Moscow, some analysts in London said Litvinenko could have fallen victim to a 'private feud' between wealthy Russian exiles in Britain.

Akhmed Zakayev, the Chechen dissident who claimed asylum in London two years ago, and who was an ally of Litvinenko, Friday urged Britain and the European Union to intervene.

'Britain and the European Union can no longer stand silent while gangster politics is imported on to the streets of London. The extent to which Putin's political critics are at risk in Russia, and now even here in London, constitutes a complete violation of human rights and civil liberties.'

Television footage Friday showed expert forensic teams undertaking a fingertip search of Litvinenko's home in north London. Similar searches took place at the hotel and a sushi bar where Litvinenko met contacts on Nov 1.

HPA chief executive Pat Troop confirmed Friday that higher than normal levels of radiation were later established to have been present at the sushi bar.

Cox described Polonium 210 as a 'pure alpha emitter' that cannot penetrate the human skin but would have had to be inhaled or ingested through a wound or by eating.

In his first official comment on the case Friday, Britain's Home Secretary John Reid said police investigating the death of Litvinenko believed it was 'linked to the presence of a radioactive substance in his body'.

As a result of the investigations, police had called in 'expert assistance to search for any residual radioactive material at a number of locations'.

Litvinenko, a former spy of the Soviet KGB, and its successor, the FSB, died three weeks after a meeting with Russian contacts in London.

His father, Walter Litvinenko, also blamed the 'Russian regime' and claimed in London Friday that he had been killed with a 'tiny nuclear bomb'.

'You have shown yourself to be as barbaric and ruthless as your most hostile critics have claimed,' Litvinenko wrote before his death.

'The bastards got me, they won't get us all,' were reportedly his last words.

His wife, Marina, and 10-year-old son, Anatoli, were at his bedside when he died.

London's Times newspaper said Friday that Litvinenko's death was likely to cast.

Litvinenko, who defected to Britain in 2000, had previously been active in uncovering corruption in Russia and was involved in investigations into the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, the Russian journalist and Chechen campaigner killed in Moscow last month.

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