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Russia blamed for mysterious death of former spy Litvinenko
By Prashant Rao
AFP
LONDON
Petroleumworld.com 11 24 06
Russia on Friday stood accused of being behind the death of former spy Alexander Litvinenko by a mysterious poisoning in what critics alleged was a Soviet-style sting by Moscow's secret services, a charge the Kremlin denied.
The 43-year-old Litvinenko, a former lieutenant-colonel in Russia's Federal Security Services (FSB) -- the successor to the Soviet KGB -- died late Thursday night as doctors struggled to explain the cause of the rapid deterioration in his health.
Friends of the former spy, however, wasted no time in laying the blame squarely at the door of the Kremlin, with a former colonel in the KGB saying he was in "no doubt" that the Russian secret service was responsible for Litvinenko's death.
The former spy also told a friend that he wanted to survive the apparent poisoning "just to show them", referring to the Kremlin, the friend told The Times in an article published Friday.
"The bastards got me ... But they won't get everybody," he whispered to Andrei Nekrasov, a friend and filmmaker, on Tuesday, the last day Litvinenko could communiciate properly, The Times said.
The ex spy apparently also made a joke at his own expense, saying: "This is what it takes to prove one has been telling the truth."
He was referring to allegations made in his book "Blowing up Russia: Terror from Within", where Litvinenko said the secret service set up the 1999 Russian apartment block bombings, which prompted the second Chechen war and propelled the then little-known Vladimir Putin to power.
His condition had worsened on Thursday, doctors and friends said, as he suffered a heart attack overnight Wednesday, and was left fighting for his life.
His spokesman and friend Alexander Goldfarb told television news broadcasters on Thursday that his friend suffered an apparent cardiac arrest and a "catastrophic" fall in blood pressure. He had been moved to intensive care on Sunday evening.
Late on Thursday, a spokesman for the hospital where Litvinenko was staying announced that he had died.
"We are sorry to announce that Alexander Litvinenko died at University College Hospital (UCH) at 9:21 (2121 GMT) on the 23rd of November 2006," the spokesman said.
"He was seriously ill when he was admitted to UCH on Friday November 17, and the medical team at the hospital did everything possible to save his life."
Oleg Gordievsky, a former colonel in the KGB who defected to Britain in the mid-1980s, said there was "no doubt" that the Russian secret service was responsible for Litvinenko's death.
Speaking to the BBC soon after Litvinenko's death was confirmed, Gordievsky said he was "very angry that the Russian security service was ... so evil," and described Russian President Putin as "an international terrorist".
He also alleged that Litvinenko was killed by a "very sophisticated poison developed in the secret laboratories of the KGB."
In Helsinki, where Putin was to attend an EU-Russia summit on Friday, a source in the Russian delegation said late Thursday, just prior to news of the death: "Of course it's a human tragedy. A person was poisoned. But the accusations against the Kremlin are so incredible, so nonsense-like, so silly, that the president cannot comment."
London's Metropolitan Police said that "inquiries continue into the circumstances surrounding how Mr Litvinenko ... became unwell" in a statement. They added that the matter was being "investigated as an unexplained death" and not as a murder.
Litvinenko, a fierce critic of Putin, first began to feel ill on November 1, after having tea with two Russians at a central London hotel, followed by lunch at a London sushi bar with an Italian academic.
One of the Russians, Andrei Lugovoi, told The Daily Telegraph on Friday that he thought he was being "set up", and said that he had given a statement to the British embassy in Moscow. He said he was willing to speak to British police.
According to The Times on Thursday, British police were hunting for the other man who accompanied Lugovoi to the meeting -- apparently identified by Litvinenko only as "Vladimir" -- whom they see as central to their investigation.
Lugovoi, however, told the Telegraph that there was no one named "Vladimir" present, and his associate was called Dmitry Kovtun.
Litvinenko's friends have also said that the Italian, Mario Scaramella, was not involved. Scaramella has said he will give a statement to the British embassy in Rome.
Litvinenko fled Russia and was granted asylum in Britain after accusing the FSB of plotting to kill the exiled Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky. He recently became a British citizen.
Doctors earlier ruled out an initial theory that the heavy metal thallium was responsible, said radioactivity was "unlikely" and dismissed a report three unidentified objects had been found in his intestines.
Pictures from the hospital released earlier this week showed Litvinenko looking gaunt and weak, propped up on pillows wearing a green hospital robe, with his bald head tilted slightly and his eyes half open.
AFP 24 0530 GMT 11 06
Copyright© 2006 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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