Putin's gonna get you...

stressederic · November 21, 2006

Ex-Russian spy may have radioactive poisoning

Staff and agencies
Tuesday November 21, 2006
Guardian Unlimited

Former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko at the University College Hospital, in central London. Photo: Handout/Getty

The former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko could have been poisoned with radioactive thallium, the toxicologist treating him said today.
Speaking outside University College Hospital in London, where Mr Litvinenko is under armed guard in intensive care, Professor John Henry said the damage to the ex-security agent's bone marrow indicated that he had ingested the radioactive form of the poison.

In its non-radioactive form, thallium is highly toxic and is used as an ant and rat poison. The radioactive variant is approved for medical use in very small doses, for example in imaging the heart.

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Unlike non-radioactive thallium, high doses cause damage to the blood cells.
"The thallium is the least of it - the radioactivity seems more important," Prof Henry said. "He may need a bone marrow transplant to get him better."

Yesterday, he had warned: "At the moment he's got liver damage and other problems - his white cell count is low. It is grim, but where there's life, there's hope."

Martin Wilkins, a professor of clinical pharmacology at Imperial College in London, said the use of radioactive thallium would explain Mr Litvinenko's anaemia.

However, the radioactive version of the poison would have been a difficult substance to transport and store.

"To give someone a sufficient dose to cause toxicity to the bone marrow, there would be issues around how you would transport it in terms of shielding the carrier from harm and getting it there in sufficient time that the radiation didn't decay," he said.

He added that the substance would have to be transported in lead casing to prevent damage to the carrier, and would only last for 70 hours.

Family and friends of Mr Litvinenko yesterday released a photograph of him in his hospital bed as a graphic illustration of the effects of the poison.

Propped up on pillows, the picture shows that the 43-year-old's grey hair has fallen out and his skin is pallid and waxy. He is surrounded by medical apparatus including a life support machine and two intravenous drips.

Patches on his chest are for constant monitoring by doctors in the intensive care unit, where he was placed amid fears he could suffer a catastrophic organ failure.

The poisoning of Mr Litvinenko, who defected to Britain in 2000, is being investigated by Peter Clarke, the head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch.

Yesteray, Oleg Gordievsky, the most senior KGB officer to defect to Britain, said he had no doubt who was responsible.

"Only the KGB can do it," he said, referring to the Russian security service - the Federal Security Service, or FSB, by its Soviet title. "They have been planning it for months ... it was obviously sanctioned [by the Kremlin]."

Mr Litvinenko, an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin's Kremlin, accused the FSB of blowing up an apartment building in 1999 so they could blame Chechen separatists and justify a new war in Chechnya.

The claim that Russia was responsible for the poisoning was dismissed in Moscow. "There is no need to comment on statements that are pure nonsense," Dmitry Petrov, a Kremlin spokesman, said.

The Foreign Intelligence Service, another KGB successor, has also denied any role.

Mr Litvinenko is an ally of Boris Berezovsky, the London based multi-millionaire and another critic of Mr Putin. A former FSB lieutenant colonel, he fled to Britain after alleging that he had been ordered to kill Mr Berezovsky, who was at his bedside yesterday.

Guardian

Quite surprised this hasn't made it on here yet.

Nice to see that Vladimir's still kept his eye in when it comes to dealing with spies...

Falconhoof · November 21, 2006

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