UK/FINLAND: Russian President Vladimit Putin dismisses allegations on Alexander Litvinenko murder as police find radiation in sushi bar where ex-spy ate just before he became ill

Russian President Vladimir Putin brushed off accusations on Friday (November 24) that he had been linked to the murder of ex-KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko, saying the issue should not evolve into a scandal. "A death of a man is always a tragedy and I deplore this and I want to extend my condolences to the family of Mr Litvinenko. As far as I understand in the medical statement made by the British physicians it does not say that this was a result of violence, this is not violent death. So there are no grounds for speculation of this kind. Anyway, we believe that our British colleagues including law enforcement and officials understand their responsibility for protecting citizens living in the UK including Russian federation citizens irrespective of their political views. So I would hope that British authorities would not contribute to instigating political scandals, which has nothing to do with reality," he told a news conference at a summit with the European Union. EU president Finland said the murder had not been discussed there. He said he was ready to offer British authorities any assistance necessary in their criminal investigation. But Putin said he believed Litvinenko's associates -- who include prominent Kremlin opponents -- were playing politics with his death. Litvinenko accused Putin of his murder on Friday in a statement read out the morning after he died of an unknown poison in a London hospital. At a news conference at the end of the summit Putin also faced questions about outspoken reporter Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot in an assassination-style killing in Moscow. But Putin said there was a tendency to focus on violent killings in Russia but ignore similar crimes elsewhere. "Look what happens in European countries with mafia who systematically kill police, journalists, judges ... It is a common problem. So this is a major problem and a general problem," Putin said. Putin is in Finland to discuss trade with the EU. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso reminded all parties to stay focused on agenda of the summit: trade. Putin said on Friday Russia would seek an agreement with the European Union on lifting a bitterly-contested ban on imports of meat from Poland, describing it as "purely a technical issue". Barroso said he had told Putin in summit talks that EU experts had certified that Poland's meat export controls met the bloc's standards and there was no longer any justification for the embargo. "We believe that this problem should not be over dramatised, especially since everyone agrees that the Polish meat is so good, in the next summit we can have a good Polish steak during lunch. So I really believe that we should not because of this matter, however important consider that our good relations with and the possibility of new agreement would be undermined," Barroso said. In the UK, police investigating Litvinenko's death have found levels of radiation in a London sushi bar where he ate just before he became sick, health officials said on Friday. Pat Troop, head of the independent Health Protection Agency, told the BBC that the police had found some radiation in the sushi bar. He said the agency were assessing the levels and the potential risk. At a news conference, Professor Roger Cox of the Radiation, Chemical And Environmental Hazards department of the HPA said polonium 210, a radioactive isotope, had been discovered in the body of Litvinenko. "At around 6pm yesterday, HPA at its Radiation Protection Division received information via the police that large quantity of alpha radiation, probably from a substance called a Polonium 210 which I will say something about it a little later on - so this large quantity of radiation had been detected in the urine of Mr Litvinenko. The links between Mr Litvinenko's symptoms and this alpha radiation exposure is a matter for the police and I cannot comment further on this," Cox said. He described further how it works. "If this glass were to be a large source of Polonioum 210, no radiation would escape from it. Pat and I could sit here all day and not receive any dose. That is a critical issue with regard to this incident. These short alpha particles cannot penetrate the skin, they cannot provide the dose from outside. However, if that Polonium 210 is ingested into the body via ingestion, eating it or via inhalation or perhaps via a wound, then it will rapidly track through the body and goes to most organs within the body and if the dose were to be sufficiently high, one would expect to see tissue damage characteristic of radiation," Cox explained. Britain has discussed Litvinenko's death with Russia and told Moscow the matter is serious, a spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said on Friday. The spokeswoman declined to comment further given the police investigation into Litvinenko's death.

ITN Source | November 26, 2006

Tags:. .poison. .penetrate. .speculation. .brushed. .assessing