KGB agent poisoned

[azaleaem]

Does anyone have any experience with poison used on the former KGB agent? It's probably thallium sulfate. The russians look like they're going after people.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breaking/story.asp?j=232925370&p=z3z9z6y85&n=232926256&x=

[Gerbil]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6165836.stm"]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6165836.stm

Recent update from the BBC.

In the end, though, we all have no idea what's actually going on here.

[nbk2000]

...confirmed that a large dose of polonium-210

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/11/24/uk.spypoisoned/index.html#

[nbk2000]

Police head for Russia amid doubts over 'lone poisoner'

Sandra Laville, Severin Carrell Tom Parfitt in Moscow
Monday November 27, 2006
The Guardian

Anti-terrorist detectives are poised to fly to Russia and Italy in an effort to solve the fatal poisoning of the Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko.

But as John Reid, the home secretary, said the police inquiry had been upgraded from an "unexplained" to a "suspicious" death, experts voiced doubt at the theory that anyone acting alone could have used the isotope polonium 210 to kill Mr Litvinenko. One scientist said polonium 210 would only kill so quickly if combined into a "designer toxin" with another isotope, beryllium, in a complicated process that would require state sponsorship. Such a process was used by Britain in early atomic weapons in the 1950s.

Article continues
"No individual could do this," said John Large, an independent nuclear consultant. "What you are talking about is the creation of a very clever little device, a designer poison pill, possibly created by nanotechnology. Without nanotechnology you would be talking about a fairly big pill, a pea-sized pill. Either way you are looking at intricate technology which is beyond the means and designs of a hired assassin without a state sponsor."

He said the likely poison pill that killed Mr Litvinenko would have to have been manufactured in a special laboratory over two or three weeks and then used very quickly - possibly within 28 days - because the half-life of the isotope polonium is only 138 days.

Senior police officers are drawing in experts from the International Atomic Energy Authority, and from the Atomic Weapons establishment at Aldermaston. Every option is being considered, from Kremlin involvement to the theory that Mr Litvinenko's work in the anti-corruption unit of the FSB, Russia's MI5, created enemies with the means and knowledge to assassinate him.

The government's emergency planning group, Cobra, has met at least six times in the last few days. Police are studying hours of CCTV tapes to trace Mr Litvinenko's movements on and before November 1, when it is likely he received the dose of radiation that killed him. Officers may travel to Russia to interview Andrei Lugovoi and Dimitri Kovtoun, who met Mr Litvinenko in the Millennium hotel on November 1, and to Italy to speak to Mario Scaramella, who met him at the Itsu restaurant in Piccadilly.

"If we need to go to Russia and Italy we will do that at the appropriate time," one police source said yesterday. Mr Kovtoun, who denies involvement, said he was going for radiation tests, because of concerns over his own contamination. One man police may speak to is a former KGB general with links to the Dignity and Honour group of retired KGB officers.

The man is named in a document passed by Mr Scaramella to Mr Litvinenko as the ringleader of a group which could be planning to kill both men. He is understood to have left Moscow on Friday for an unknown destination.

The home secretary refused to be drawn on the police investigation yesterday. Meanwhile more than 300 people who were in the Millennium Hotel, in Grosvenor Square, London, and Itsu, in Piccadilly, on November 1 have contacted the NHS and the Health Protection Agency is following up the calls. Several have been asked to supply urine samples.

Mr Litvinenko's home in north London, where traces of alpha radiation from polonium 210 have been found, was still being examined yesterday.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1957880,00.html

[Bert]

Making nano sized versions of the "urchin" neutron source just to kill an unpopular journalist/ex-employee would seem to violate the KISS principle. With the half life of Po 210, each dose would be a custom job.

It happened in England, I'd say this has Q's fingerprints all over it!

[nbk2000]

The article mentions the technique being developed by the Brits.

And, while KISS is always good, it is sometimes important to be extravagant with your punishments, to show potential enemies that you are prepared to go to any lengths. :)

That, and they had this expensive toy that they've been dying to use.

I can also see the risks in having an extremely potent poison with no antidote in the hands of agents who might later turn it against you. But this has a built-in time limit, beyond which it's harmless.

Also, if it's micronized particles of Polonium with Beryllium, that sounds to me like an airborne radiological weapon, intended to be dusted over population centers for killing off the population within a couple of weeks, while leaving the infrastructure intact and safe for the attacker to use after a few months.

Or layed down in front of attacking Soviet armor columns, so their troops will inhale the dust and die, even with masks (because the particles are small enough to get through the filters), without permanently contaminating allied territory. Sounds very 50's WWIII to me. :)

If I'm not mistaken, Polonium and Beryllium are used together as a neutron source for initating neutron cascade in nuclear weapons. So, by combining the two together, you'd get both a high-energy alpha emitter and a neutron emitter, in an inhalable form, where it'd lodge in the lungs and be absorbed systemically.

[Hitech_Hillbilly]

The Register is reporting that you can get polonium-210 from a company in New Mexico. Not sure if it's a Fed run Sting, or how long it will last.

Link to the article: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/29/polonium_available_online/

Link to United Nuclear Scientific Equipment & Supplies: http://www.unitednuclear.com/isotopes.htm

[Gerbil]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2478908,00.html

Baaaaaaaaad!

The company says that it has supplied radioactive materials to “the science hobbyist”, businesses, government bodies and teachers since 1998. “We specialise in small orders.” United Nuclear assures customers that they run no risk of being tipped off to the US Department for Homeland Security.

[Bugger]

There is also a thread on the poisoning of Col. Litvenenko with Po-210 going on www.sciencemadness.org/talk/miscellaneous, under "Thallium Poisoning", including files about Po-210 and its radiation toxicity that can be downloaded. (It was at first thought to be thallium, most likely as Tl(I) nitrate or acetate or sulfate). He met a mysterious Russian who claimed to have documents pointing to the murderers of a Russian journalist, for tea in the London Mayfair Hotel, the day he fell ill (or the day before), 1 November. The Po-210 was probably put in a drink served to him while his attention was distracted with the documents, which could have easily been used to obscure his view of his drink.

London Metropolitan anti-terrorism cops, and the British Secret Police (MI5 & MI6), have in the past day or two detained for forensic testing four British Airways passenger jets that flew from Moscow to London in late October, after traces of Po-210 were found on them, and they are also trying to trace thousands of passengers who were on them. In addition, traces of Po-210 have been found in the Colonel's home, and two other London pubs that he visited the day that he fell ill. This would suggest that the Po compound that was given him was either volatile, or was converted to a volatile compound in his body e.g. methylpolonium.

Also, a former Russian Prime Minister, presumably opposed to Putin, fell ill while visiting Dublin, Ireland, on the day the Colonel died; he collapsed bleeding from his mouth and nose, which could be either radiological or chemical poisoning, and doctors are sure that he was deliberately poisoned. What we need to solve the case is a real-life James Bond, by the looks of it.

BTW Has anyone here ever handled polonium isotopes? (The longest-lived one is Po-209, half-life 103 years, but is much harder to obtain than Po-210, and there are other lighter isotopes that have half-lives of several years). The alpha-radiation from Po-210 (decays to stable Pb-206) is high-energy and intense, but is easily-absorbed by matter and hence is short-range, hence its ability to damage cells in the gastrointestinal tract and bone-marrow and liver, and prevent them from reproducing and cause cancer. By comparison, its chemical toxicity would be insignificant, being no more than that of tellurium which it chemically resembles except for the difficulty in obtaining the Po(VI) oxidation state. Like Se and Te, and several other heavy metals and semi-metals, Po (in soils where uranium and its decay products are present, derived from decomposition of granite) is taken up and concentrated by many plants, including tobacco (in which Po-210 is often detectable), and in the southwestern U.S.A., "loco-weed" which can cause "selenium staggers" in cattle.

[mrtnira]

Please consider going to www.axisglobe.com. It is now my home page. It is done by people with a Former Soviet Union focus (many apparently with security services background).

Some times, the daily front page contents list looks like rambling, because each sentence may be the lead for an article, but it is not a formally structured contents page. All the lines compress together into a paragraph. If you click on "read more" it will take you to the page, in which each each topic sentence is amplified correctly.

On the left hand side are topical link lines that will take you to pages focused on crime/extremism, terrorism, etc.

If you are interested in how our many odd threads of academic interests come together in the real world, this web site will keep you busy. I'd bookmark it for regular reference if you are so inclined.

A second page to often refer to is www.jamestown.org.

Both pages are done by professionals and present serious reporting on real world issues.

[Desmikes]

I doubt that this was a true radiation poisoning. According to the story, the dead man started feeling bad the same evening. The radiation dose required to make one feel shitty in matter of hours, will kill him/her in much less time than the guy apparently lived. They also were saying that after they detected radiation coming off his urine, they could not figure out what isotope was responsible. This is strange because, generally you can identify any isotope in the smallest quantities from its gamma signature. Which leads me to think that the whole thing with Po may be taken by media a little too far.

[megalomania]

I’m with nbk on this one. The method of assassination was so exotic and James Bondian that they must have wanted everybody to know exactly what they are capable of. I wonder if this was more of a message to other enemies, or perhaps the west, that there are old scores to be settled and “we’re a comin for you next.”

[Das Räumungskommando]

I agree. This is probably a signal to other dissidents/ defectors that is supposed to show them how they deal with such people.

btw, I just came to know, that the Italian, Mario Scaramella, is also heavily poisoned by that Po-210 and is expected to die soon.

[Cobalt.45]

Initially, I had theorized that he had done himself in, as a desperate scheme to frame his "enemies".

Now, I'm not at all sure this was the case.

Now, my questions revolve around why there's so much radiation contamination secondary to the actual murder?

You might expect top government agents to be somewhat "cleaner"; this begs the question- who done it?

[ShadowMyGeekSpace]

http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/~3/56543764/article.pl

reporter writes "British authorities had identified polonium 210 to be the radioactive poison that killed Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian spy who defected to Great Britain. Now, according to a disturbing report, the authorities have identified the source of the poison to be Russia. Bloomberg ominously reports, 'Scientists at the U.K.'s Atomic Weapons Establishment in Aldermaston, west of London, have traced the polonium 210 found in London to a nuclear power plant in Russia, the capital's Evening Standard newspaper reported today. Officials at the establishment didn't return calls.' A cold chill just fell on relations between Russia and the West." In another twist to this developing story, the shadowy Italian security consultant who dined with Litvinenko has also fallen ill with radiation poisoning.

[nbk2000]

If it was an inhaled dust, then particles of it that weren't systemically absorbed would be exhaled over time, the concentration of the contamination increasing in relation to the time spent in the same spot.

Or, secondary dust contamination on clothes and shoes?

[Alexires]

This remind anyone of Leon Trotsky? Assassinated in Mexico with an Ice Axe.

*laugh* Although, I think that the Trotsky Assassination had more class than "radiation" poisoning.

[Cobalt.45]

I think that the Trotsky Assassination had more class than "radiation" poisoning.
I have to agree.

But as far as the "fear factor" goes, looking at the bald, sunken-eyed, living corpse shown in the news footage speaks volumes.

The perpetrator(s) are flaunting their power. "Fuck with me, I can and will kill you."

After all, the ex-agent could have merely disappeared, been "accidentally" run over, or any of a dozen other scenarios enlisted to have gotten rid of him.

An example was made of this guy...

[Bugger]

If you look at the news photographs of Col. Litvinenko as he lay dying, you will also notice that he turned yellow - jaundice, as well as being rendered bald. This was because the intense energetic alpha-radiation from Po-210 had virtually destroyed his liver.

As I wrote above, the secondary poisonings and contamination with Po-210, e.g. the other hotel and sushi bar where he subsequently went after meeting the mysterious Russians, must be due to the polonium compound given him being converted to a volatile compound or compounds in his body, like H2Po or (CH3)2Po, which were then exhaled on his breath. Some of this must have been breathed in by Scaramello, whom he met after the meeting the Russians, hence the Po-210 found in his body, although his life is (not yet) in danger. Compounds like these would have been very smelly, like the similar Se and Te compounds (seleno- and telluro-mercaptans and their hydrides), but there is nothing in the news reports about Litvinenko's breath having a bad smell before he died.

[Jacks Complete]

It would be fairly simple to mix the various dusts together, and sprinkle them over the target. Or release them as a gas, for example in a car or private booth.

Even if there was a smell to them, it would be easily disguised by a strong scent, or a gas to numb the nose receptors could be added. I'm fairly sure that Hydrogen Sulphide does this, after the initial stink, and there are sure to be hundreds more compounds that can do the same. The easiest way, however, would be a very slow release. Build up the amount of polium-210 fluoride (or whatever gas you can find) slowly, and the smell would not be noticed. Another way would be to do as the "OhNoes! Nanotech!" article suggested, and adhere the Po-210 to an aerosolised compund such as cigarette smoke. However, were this technique used, anyone in the building would be affected. An idea of the onward contamination and results of the bystanders tests will give us a better clue.

In all, it's a complex and very nasty and expensive way to kill someone. He was definately made an example of.

[Alexires]

Bugger, while what you are saying in regards to his breathe smelling may be correct, I think that the doctors most likely wouldn't bother with it. They have someone who is dying on their hands, and his smelly breathe is probably the least of their worries.

As you said while supporting your point, it would take a knowledge of chemistry above high school and probably above first year university to recognize that Polonium was the cause.

*Nod* I definitely agree with Jacks Complete. As I said before, the Russians have a tendency to make their .... point *chuckle*..... As in Trotsky?.... Oh forget about it *wink*.

[Bert]

Killing a minor problem like Litvinenko in a very public fashion at a time where bad publicity for Russia/Putin would have a negative effect on the upcoming international summit meeting would be a poor choice for an experienced politician like Putin to make. False flag operations and killing your own low value assets while blaming it on your enemy come to mind... Litvvinenko was generally regarded as an asset of exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who was paying his bills while they both lived in England. Berezovsky has stated his intention to bring down Putin, and his belief that democratic means are for wimps.
http://www.exile.ru/2006-December-01/toxic_avenger.html
We've a number of Russian and other ex soviet members. What do THEY think?

[Das Räumungskommando]

Look, what I found:

Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian intelligence agent poisoned in London, is to be buried according to Muslim tradition after converting to Islam on his deathbed.

The spy’s father, Walter Litvinenko, said in an interview published today that his son - who was born an Orthodox Christian but had close links to Islamist rebels in Chechnya - made the request as he lay dying in University College Hospital.

“He said ‘I want to be buried according to Muslim tradition’,” Mr Litvinenko told Moscow’s Kommersant daily.

“I said, ‘Well son, as you wish. We already have one Muslim in our family - my daughter is married to a Muslim. The important thing is to believe in the Almighty. God is one.’”

... disgusting.

[Nihilist]

Killing a minor problem like Litvinenko in a very public fashion at a time where bad publicity for Russia/Putin would have a negative effect on the upcoming international summit meeting would be a poor choice for an experienced politician like Putin to make. False flag operations and killing your own low value assets while blaming it on your enemy come to mind... Litvvinenko was generally regarded as an asset of exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who was paying his bills while they both lived in England. Berezovsky has stated his intention to bring down Putin, and his belief that democratic means are for wimps.
http://www.exile.ru/2006-December-01/toxic_avenger.html
We've a number of Russian and other ex soviet members. What do THEY think?

I'm not russian, but i'm thinking the same thing. This is too overt for the russian government to have done. They have no reason to do something like this, this guy doesn't seem like he was a huge immediate threat to them. This looks a lot like a way to justify something...what i'm not sure yet is what it's going to be used to justify.

Whoever did kill him must have seen this entire response play out in their minds before it happened. They must have known it would be discovered that it was Polonium poisoning, they must have known it would be tested and traced to that Russian lab, and they must have known it would be a huge international incident. So, who stands to gain here?

[thermobaric]

I'm pretty sure the Kremlin was involved in Litvinenko's death.He was exiled to the UK 6 years ago for writing a book connecting Putin and the FSB to the Moscow apartment bombings in 1999,and it looks like they finally got him.
http://vancouver.indymedia.org/?q=node/3022
And an article and clip from his book:http://eng.terror99.ru/resources/book/

[Bert]

You might want to research the order of the events you refer to. And while Putin (like many other heads of state) has blood on his hands, one should always take a careful look at the evidence and research who might stand to benefit most from a covert and inflammatory act.

Warfare between nuclear states is done by proxy and psy ops. Terrorism is a tool. Murder is a tool. The press is a tool, and the most important one of the bunch. When the whole press corps of US and UK come together in a united front with a pat explanation before any evidence is known, I would question how it might have come to pass.

[Nihilist]

Not to mention the only lab that examined the polonium that poisoned the man was run by the U.K. gov. As yet, we have no independent data to verify their claim. You can bet your ass if an American defector in Russia died like this and the Russians claimed they found American polonium in his system, our press would be second-guessing their analysis all over the place.

[thermobaric]

You might want to research the order of the events you refer to.You're right, Litvinenko wrote the book after his exile not before.

But regardless of what the press says he would have been considered an enemy and traitor by the Russian government,and prime target for assasination.They would have benefited from his death by losing an active critic of their policy and by setting an example for anyone that would want to follow Alexander Litvinenko.I also find it interesting that he died while investigating the murder of Anna Politskaya,another Kremlin critic.

[Chopper]

This story gets better and better each day.

I've seen no mention of it here yet, so I though it may be interesting to note that yesterday, Tues 5th Dec it was reported on Melbourne television that the colonel had in fact planned to black-mail the russian govt!!:eek:

This was coming from the mouths of the dead man's friends, no less. The best bit, is the crazy fucker was only intending to blackmail them for tens of thousands of dollars.:rolleyes: Over, if my memory serves me correctly, KGB affairs.

Perhaps he got off lightly after all.:D

[Desmikes]

At this point the story has gotten so big that 90% of everything that's going surface is going to be someone's speculation taken too far. We might as well ignore the story for the next few months, wait for the dust to settle.

I doubt that anybody took the dead man seriously. His life was far too sketchy for anybody to believe his words. It is more plausible that Berezovsky killed him, in a similar way that a farmer kills his the animals, you raise it - and it's up to you what to do with it.
If it is true that Litvinenko did try to blackmail FSB, then of course in Russian understanding he can be viewed as a terrorist, and most people know what happens to ALL terrorists in Russia - they don't make it to court, or even out the door.

[FUTI]

The more the time passes and press haunting endlessly about it...I'm more and more convinced that Russia has nothing to do with it. This is standard demonisation technique. Since it is dangerous and unwise to demonise whole country they concentrate on a one (leading) man.

Was there a reason to kill the guy? Yes he is big mouth defector, but is it reason enough? With him cut of the events in the country his role as a informant diminishes since Russia had already changed all procedures/data/possible weak points he has been aware and since they trained him they know he already has the data he knows in secure place to use as needed (no matter is he living or dead). With him living they can say we are open society respecting the freedom of the speach and diminish his words through simple undisputable fact that he speaks across the border and do not live inside the country. Most of all his death defies KISS principle.

Press would like to convince us that KGB (now FSB) wouldn't choose to just create traffic accident where car run over the guy (couple times just in case ;) ) but instead make logistical nightmare of creating delicate plot for smugling toxic radioactive substance inside foreign country (where they could be caught or worse stopped at custom) with feable chance to might just get into oportunity to poison him with (imagine this) substance that can only be connected with one nuclear facility in Russia. Please can someone borrow me that elegant hammer KGB used to remove Trotsky away so I can hit the ass that create that scenario or myself since I don't wish to listen that stupidity anymore. I'm imagining the guys running around with detectors making people scared to death so the people start talking "Those crazy Russians they gona poison us all."

Since UK is little hot and cold regarding EU and EU is trying to form better relations with Russia despite their diferencies I could put some money that some ass in UK has come up with that story. He is of no use to them anymore, so they doesn't need to feed him anymore. Make him as a central figure of your own plot and you even benefit out of it. Isn't Mr. Churchill said that "propaganda is the art of stepping on somebody's foot and cry "ouch" yourself"?

[nbk2000]

One of the articles said the type of poison used was developed by the British government.

A russian defector is poisoned in britian.

The brits don't like russia.

Hmmm...are the pieces fitting yet? ;)

[Nihilist]

It'd be hilarious if this guy was trying to mildly poison himself as a publicity stunt to promote a new book. That actually seems more likely than most of these scenarios. This guy seems to worthless for anyone to bother killing, so I think the only person who might've done it is him.

[nbk2000]

Where would a has-been spy get weaponized polonium? It's not something he could have kept around all this years, what with the half-life of only a few months.

And how fucking insane would someone have to be to poison themselves with radiation?! :rolleyes:

[akinrog]

I'm more and more convinced that Russia has nothing to do with it. This is standard demonisation technique. Since it is dangerous and unwise to demonise whole country they concentrate on a one (leading) man.


IMHO, it might be possible that Russia has nothing to do with it. As you know a few months ago Russia has paid all foreign debts and is now an financially independent county, which is no good for imperialist/capitalist circles. And since Russia is also a nuclear power, they need something to corner them, creating such a tumult to demonize them. :mad: Regards.

[Bugger]

The latest news:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061208/ap_on_re_eu/poisoned_spy

Hotel bar is focus of ex-spy death probe
By DAVID STRINGER, Associated Press Writer

LONDON - Detectives investigating the poisoning death of an ex-KGB agent focused Friday on a meeting at a London hotel bar where at least 10 people may have been exposed to the radioactive isotope found in his body.
Colleagues in Moscow hoped to question one of those people, Andrei Lugovoi — another former KGB agent and security consultant named by British law enforcement officials as a key witness in the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko.

Lugovoi met Litvinenko at the bar of London's Millennium Hotel on Nov. 1 — the day Litvinenko fell ill.
Russian media reported that both Lugovoi and his business associate at that meeting, Dmitry Kovtun, also showed signs of radioactive contamination. On Friday, the Interfax news agency reported that he had radiation damage to his intestines and kidneys.
Interfax also quoted unidentified medical sources as saying that checks of Lugovoi found that some of his organs had malfunctioned, but Lugovoi himself later told the ITAR-Tass news agency that he was feeling "normal."

Seven hotel employees who were working at the London bar that day also tested positive for exposure to radiation, British health officials said.

Among the others contaminated by the poison is Mario Scaramella, an Italian security consultant working with the Italian parliament who also met the Russian in London Nov. 1. Scaramella was found to have significant quantities of polonium-210 in his body and there are concerns for his health, but he has not developed symptoms of radiation poisoning.
Marina Litvinenko, the agent's wife, also received a dose of the poison, but doctors say it was not enough to make her sick.

Dr. Michael Clarke of Britain's Health Protection Agency said the polonium-210 poisoning likely was carried out at the hotel bar — but a British police official said no conclusions had been drawn. The official said the venue was an integral part of the case, speaking on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak about the case.
"People go to bars to drink, eat and smoke — all of which are possibilities for the poisoning," Clarke told The Associated Press.

Litvinenko's friend Alex Goldfarb said the former spy sipped tea during the meeting, while Lugovoi said he recalls ordering a bottle of gin. Clarke said polonium could have been discreetly added to food or drink.
"If it was some sort of liquid, it could have been — as in James Bond — a little magic capsule," Clarke said Thursday, the day Litvinenko was buried in a specially sealed coffin.

Litvinenko died at a London hospital on Nov. 23. Doctors said he was poisoned with a massive dose of the radioactive substance.
Traces of polonium-210 have been found at several sites he visited in recent weeks, including the stadium of London's Arsenal soccer club and the British Embassy in Moscow. Health officials said traces of polonium also had been uncovered at the Parkes Hotel in London's Mayfair neighborhood — where Lugovoi stayed Oct. 16.
Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika said Wednesday that British police would not be allowed to question him directly, but could attend while Russian officers conducted the interrogation.

Andrei Romashov, a lawyer for Lugovoi, denied a report that Kovtun had slipped into a coma after meeting Russian investigators and Scotland Yard detectives. Interfax later cited a source as saying Kovtun had regained consciousness but was in serious condition. It said Lugovoi doing better than Kovtun but also showed signs of contamination.
Lugovoi told ITAR-Tass that he did not trust reports about Kovtun's condition and urged an end to "speculation" about their condition.

Russian prosecutors announced Thursday they had opened a criminal case into the murder of Litvinenko and attempted murder of Kovtun.
A criminal probe in Russia would allow suspects to be prosecuted there. Officials previously have said Russia would not extradite any suspects in Litvinenko's killing.

[Jacks Complete]

Anyone recall the story of Typhoid Mary?

It is quite possible that the idea behind this was to kill several others as well, but it failed. Take out high-level Russian guys, high placed UK guys, plus the actual target. After all, high doses of radiation take a while to kill, but can take out those who come into contact with the primary.

A nice coating of radioactive dust on the shoulders would be a great way to do this.

It probably was the UK government. Look what they did to David Kelly over the non-existant Iraq WMDs evidence, and who knows how many others have quietly been killed for "our" side, along with the hundreds killed by un-needed wars and the like.

[Bugger]

It now looks very much as if Kovtun, another (former?) KGB agent, did it, now falling sick with radiation poisoning himself, through having inhaled or ingested some of it while transporting it from Moscow and/or "spiking" Litvinenko's drink with the stuff. But he must have known someone very "high up" to get access to a lethal quantity of Po-210:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061211/ap_on_re_eu/poisoned_spy
Radiation linked to contact of ex-spy
By SIMONE UTLER, Associated Press , 11 Dec. 2006

HAMBURG, Germany - Traces of the rare radioactive substance polonium-210 were found at a German apartment visited by a contact of fatally poisoned ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko — before the two men met in London, authorities said Sunday. The polonium traces were found on a couch where Russian businessman Dmitry Kovtun is believed to have slept at his ex-wife's Hamburg apartment the night before he headed to London for a meeting with Litvinenko last month, German investigators said. Tests on traces of radiation at the apartment "clearly show that it is polonium-210," Gerald Kirchner of the Federal Radiation Protection agency said at a news conference.

Investigators said Kovtun flew to Hamburg from Moscow with Aeroflot on Oct. 28 and departed for London on Nov. 1. That is the day when Kovtun and at least one other Russian met with Litvinenko at London's Millennium Hotel — and when Litvinenko is believed to have fallen ill. Traces of radiation also were found in the passenger seat of a car that picked Kovtun up from the Hamburg airport, on a document Kovtun brought to Hamburg immigration authorities and at the home of Kovtun's ex-mother-in-law outside Hamburg — all from before the Nov. 1 meeting.

German prosecutors did not say whether they suspect Kovtun might have been involved in Litvinenko's death. But they said they were investigating him on suspicion he may have improperly handled radioactive material. "At this stage of the investigation, we have sufficient initial cause to believe that he brought the polonium traces to Hamburg outside his body, or that these traces are the result of contact with polonium-210," prosecutor Martin Koehnke said.

Officials said that any connection between Kovtun and Litvinenko's death would have to be investigated by British police. British police are treating his death as a murder. "We still believe that both variants are possible: that he may be a victim, but also that he may have been involved, at least in procuring the polonium," Koehnke said. Litvinenko, an ex-Russian agent who was a fierce Kremlin critic, died Nov. 23 after blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin for the poisoning. The Kremlin has vehemently denied involvement.

Kovtun reportedly is being treated in Moscow for radiation poisoning. Russian authorities have opened a criminal investigation into his poisoning, calling it attempted murder. Kirchner, the radiation agency official, said it was possible Kovtun could already have been poisoned when he arrived in Hamburg and left behind traces through body fluids such as sweat.

On Saturday, the German plane aboard which Kovtun flew from Hamburg to London tested negative for traces of polonium-210. Investigators raised the possibility that may be because the plane had been cleaned thoroughly. A security officer for Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport said all Aeroflot planes, including the one which flew to Hamburg on Oct. 28, had been checked for radiation and tested negative. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media.

Litvinenko met at the Millennium Hotel in London's Mayfair neighborhood with Kovtun and former Soviet agent Andrei Lugovoi. Another man, security firm head Vyacheslav Sokolenko, has said he was at the hotel but did not participate in the meeting. Lugovoi has denied that the men were involved in the ex-spy's death.

Meanwhile, Litvinenko's widow said in interviews published Sunday that her late husband's criticism of the Kremlin had antagonized his former secret service colleagues, and contended that Putin had created an atmosphere that "makes it possible to kill a British person on British soil." In her first interviews, Marina Litvinenko said she believed Russian authorities were behind the poisoning of her husband, who sought asylum in Britain in 2000 and obtained citizenship this year. Marina Litvinenko told Sky News in an English-language interview that her husband "openly went out from system and accused the system of killing people, of kidnap."

Marina Litvinenko has placed her faith in British investigators but said she does not intend to cooperate with Russian authorities, who plan to come to London to probe her husband's death. "In Russia, it doesn't matter how many people are killed," she said, adding that the life of "only one person can still be very important in England."

Also on Sunday, Litvinenko's friend Alex Goldfarb accused Russian authorities of trying to obstruct the British probe by preventing Kovtun and Lugovoi from being questioned. Lugovoi was supposed to testify after a team of Scotland Yard officers arrived in Moscow on Tuesday. But the interrogation has been postponed several times, although Lugovoi himself has said he is eager to answer questions. "It's a clumsy effort to cover up the trace, to prevent British investigators from meeting with two key witnesses," Goldfarb told The Associated Press.

He added that Lugovoi and Kovtun could be in danger as the authorities "could try to remove them later." "Another crime is unfolding before our eyes — the removal of two key witnesses: Lugovoi and Kovtun," he told the AP.

Lugovoi, who is being checked in Russia for radioactive poisoning, said Sunday his condition was "stable" and results of his medical checks would be available by the end of the week. Lugovoi said Kovtun also was in a "satisfactory" condition. "He's not in a coma," Lugovoi told the RIA Novosti, denying a report by the Interfax news agency on Thursday.

[Nihilist]

Something about this whole situation just feels wrong. You have this extremely expensive and dangerous operation carried out in this very amateurish way...the authorities are unraveling this too quickly, something isn't right.

[nbk2000]

We're talking about post-collapse russia now, not Stalins' USSR.

That says a lot about the quality of the job done. ;)

[nbk2000]

Litvinenko's killers used polonium worth $10m to give massive overdose
Daniel McGrory and Tony Halpin in Moscow
# Dose ten times the lethal level
# Investigators are baffled by amount

British investigators believe that Alexander Litvinenko’s killers used more than $10 million of polonium-210 to poison him. Preliminary findings from the post mortem examination on the former KGB spy suggest that he was given more than ten times the lethal dose.

Police do not know why the assassins used so much of the polonium-210, and are investigating whether the poison was part of a consignment to be sold on the black market.

They believe that whoever orchestrated the plot knew of its effects, but are unsure whether the massive amount was used to send a message — it made it easier for British scientists to detect — or is evidence of a clumsy operation.

A British security source said yesterday: “You can’t buy this much off the internet or steal it from a laboratory without raising an alarm so the only two plausible explanations for the source are that it was obtained from a nuclear reactor or very well connected black market smugglers.”

Alexander Goldfarb, a friend of Litvinenko, said: “Only a state-sponsored organisation could obtain such a large amount of polonium-210 without raising suspicion on the international market.”

In Moscow, Scotland Yard detectives have asked to question further two Russian businessmen who met Litvinenko several times in the fortnight before he died, including November 1, the day he fell ill. Both men, Andrei Lugovoy and Dmitri Kovtun, were contaminated with polonium-210 and remain isolated in a clinic.

The men — who have been friends since they were 12 and attended the same Moscow military academy — deny any role in the poisoning and claim that they are victims. German police, however, have begun a criminal investigation into Mr Kovtun after traces of polonium-210 were found at severallocations he visited in Hamburg. Neither man has explained why the radioactive poison was discovered in London in places they visited as long ago as October 16.

The nine British detectives sent to Moscow to investigate the murder are likely to return home this week. Russian authorities have blocked their inquiries and left them on the sidelines as their own officials question the main figures in the investigation.

Security sources told The Times that Russian officials refused to ask Mr Kovtun and Mr Lugovoy questions to which the British team wanted answers. Aware of the diplomatic sensitivities of this case, police chiefs and politicians have avoided any public disagreement with Russia or criticised the way Yuri Chaika, the country’s Prosecutor-General, has effectively hijacked the investigation.

United Nuclear Scientific Supplies of New Mexico, one of the few companies licensed to sell polonium-210 isotopes online, said that as a single unit costed about $69, it would take at least 15,000 orders, costing more than $10 million, to kill someone.

The company said that as it sold to only a handful of outlets in the United States every three months, anyone placing an order for 15,000 units would be spotted.

Experts reckon that as little as 0.1 micrograms of polonium-210 would be enough to kill — the equivalent of a single aspirin tablet divided into 10 million pieces.

The killers would also have to know that polonium-210 decays rapidly; its half-life is only 138 days.

The first consignment is reported to have arrived in the second part of October. The rest arrived in two further batches but police do not know why the couriers risked smuggling further supplies into Britain when the original amount was sufficent to murder their target.

The latest theory, made by Alexander Shvets, another former KGB spy, is that Litvinenko uncovered damaging information about a powerful Russian businessman with close links to President Putin.

In Moscow yesterday, a vigil was held for the more than 200 journalists who have died violently since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Journalists held photographs of many of the victims, including Anna Politkovskaya, whose murder Litvinenko claims he was investigating when he was murdered.


Here's a new theory...test subject for russian black marketeers. :)

[Altroman]

. . . As usual, the Media has chosen to distort the facts in an effort to garner a better headline! Po210 would not be purchased in 100 femtoCurie "license-exempt" quantities - it would be purchased in much larger (mCi) quantities (and subsequently at far lower cost), in a relatively pure chemical salt form which is much less expensive to produce and (in this case) to use. My guesstimate of the total cost: less than $100k, including the palm-greasing required to facilitate transport.
Altroman's Word of Advice #54: Carefully check all assumptions and claims made by the Media (especially those concerning energetic materials!)- they rarely act with honest intent, or with scientific impartiality.

[nbk2000]

The media will always distort the numbers, to make the story sound like they want it to sound.

Just like when cops say 'Million dollars worth of drugs seized!'. Yeah, if every bit of it was sold as nickel bags, but it never is.

They inflated the cost to an enormous amount for the 'Someone sure wanted HIM dead!' factor, while still mentioning the 'Anyone with $60 can buy spy poison!' amount to get the sheeple scared that anyone could afford to poison them with it. :)

[mrtnira]

Litvinenko was murdered by a killer with three false passports

On-line article from http://www.axisglobe.com/article.asp?article=1199

Oleg Gordievsky
AIA reported exactly a month ago that Scotland Yard investigators had some information about the possible killer of the Russian ex-security service officer Alexander Litvinenko, according to former agent of KGB in Britain Oleg Gordievsky. He told his version to Radio Liberty this week again.

Gordievsky said that, already in the first days of the probe, Scotland Yard detected some illegal visitor, who arrived in London from Hamburg under the forged documents November 1. The man, a professional killer, arrived in Heathrow under the forged EU passport to pass unnoticed. Then the killer changed the passport for another passport of the EU. He left the same night after Litvinenko’s poisoning (or perhaps, early next day), using the third passport, Gordievsky said, specifying the detectives have a photo of the possible killer taken by the airport’s surveillance cameras. His first passport was photographed as well.

Russian online paper Gazeta.ru wrote earlier that this man was mentioned in the papers, showed to Litvinenko by his Italian contact Mario Scaramella on November 1. A former spetsnaz member of the military counterintelligence, GRU, named Igor, 46, was mentioned in the dossier, allegedly delivered from Russia. His surname is not disclosed in interests of investigation.

Last month, AIA wrote, referring to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, that an eventual name of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service expert in covert operations might be Igor Vlasov. The British media outlets have reported that he is easy limps (after a car crash), perfectly knows English and Portuguese, and also the judo, has some passports and carries out functions of a professional killer. Later, owing to leakages, it became known that the suspect stopped in the beginning of November in one of the London hotels.

Some editions believe that this person is involved also in the murder of the investigative journalist of the Russian Novaya gazeta, Anna Politkovskaya. It is not excluded that the man Gordievsky spoke about, and a certain Igor is one and the same person.

Gordievsky’s conclusions partly coincide with the version of Andrei Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun, who met with Litvinenko on the day he fell fatally ill, they had put forward in their justification. As it was found out later, radiation had appeared in places Kovtun visited in Hamburg, Germany. Kovtun and Lugovoy explained the polonium trace with the alleged fact that the real murderer of Litvinenko wished to bring them under suspicion and followed them. According to Gordievsky, the Scotland Yard inspectors have believed the both witnesses, Gazeta.ru says.

Meanwhile, Gibson Square Books, a British publishing house, is reissuing Litvinenko's Blowing Up Russia, a controversial book and the first of a slew of planned editions that will carry the dead man's anti-Kremlin allegations around the world, as The Associated Press puts it.

[Altroman]

An interesting feature of Po210 is its very high radiothermal output (because of its high energy density it is used in RTGs as a source of heat to generate electricity for satellites). The amount of polonium required to deliver a fatal dose would likely have been perceptibly warm if placed on solid food in powder form. This would have immediately raised suspicions. Also, the ozone and nitrogen oxides generated by alpha radiolysis of the air nearby may have been detectable by smell if it were dispensed in concentrated powder form. Thus I suspect that it was prepared as a soluble salt in aqueous solution, and then dissolved in a soup or drink to mask its thermal and radiolytic signature.

[megalomania]

I would imagine most food would be served hot, and what european eatery would not be filled with smokers, especially the Soviet types? The easier to hide the warmth and O3/NOx odor. I think tobacco is one of the food groups over there.

[nbk2000]

It was in a teapot.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/01/it_was_in_the_t.html

[paroxysm]

This seems to me like such an elaborate way for bumpimg-off a political or social opponent. There are far more viable and easy ways than this, although perhaps none as fool-proof. There were worries voiced on BBC news that the trail of radiation may dissapear but with Polonium 210's half life of 138.376 days I hardly thought this was possible, and why could it not be traced back before the time at which he fell ill, ie. back to the killer?