VARIOUS: Ex-spy accuses Russian President Vladimir Putin after radiation death

In a statement dictated before his death, an ex-KGB spy accused Vladimir Putin of his murder on Friday (November 24) after his slow death from radiation poisoning, but the Russian president brushed off the accusations as "political provocation". "You may succeed in silencing one man. But a howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Mr Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life," Litvinenko said in a statement read out by Russian dissident and friend Alexander Goldfarb. Litvinenko's weeping father echoed the accusation of his son whom he called 'Sasha.' "This regime is a mortal danger to the world. Sasha fought this regime, he understood it.. And this regime got him," wept Walter Litvinenko who spoke to waiting journalists outside the hospital where his son died on Thursday (November 23) night. Russian President Vladimir Putin brushed off accusations, 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 in the Finnish capital Helsinki. EU president Finland said the murder had not been discussed there. Putin 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. 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. London said it had raised with Moscow the "serious matter" of Litvinenko's death. Britain held a meeting of COBRA, its top-level cabinet team which gathers for civil emergencies, a Home Office (interior ministry) spokeswoman said. At a news conference, Professor Roger Cox of the Radiation, Chemical And Environmental Hazards department of the HPA said polonium 210, a deadly, hard to make and rare radioactive poison, had been discovered in the body of Litvinenko. "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. Polonium-210 is a solid that can be dissolved in a solution. It is not a radiation hazard unless it is absorbed by the body by inhaling, eating or drinking it or if it gets in a wound, according to the HPA. If radiation is going to be dangerous it has to be absorbed by the body. Long-term exposure to radiation can cause mutations and cancer. But exposure to a short, intense burst of radiation causes major damage to key control centres in cells. Alpha particles emitted by polonium are absorbed very quickly by the body. Polonium-210 also has a very short half-life. The longer the half life the less radioactivity is emitted from the material. "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. Police were trying to work out how the radioactive poison entered the body of Litvinenko who wasted away over three weeks, losing all his hair. Britain's Health Protection Agency said radiation was found at a sushi bar where Litvinenko met an Italian academic and at a hotel where he met another former Russian agent, both on the day he fell ill. His home also showed traces of radiation. Litvinenko, who became a British citizen last month, was one of a group of Putin opponents who have clustered in London, including billionaire Boris Berezovsky and Chechen separatists, frequently attracting Moscow's scorn. A British Foreign Office spokeswoman said it had discussed the affair at "routine meetings" with Russian embassy officials. A Russian ex-spy came forward in Moscow to acknowledge that he was the man who met Litvinenko at a London hotel with two other Russians the day he suddenly fell ill. The man, Andrei Lugovoy, told a Russian newspaper they had discussed "business". Lugovoy met British diplomats in Moscow on Thursday and said he would answer any questions from police about the affair. British anti-terrorism police investigating the case said officers could go to Russia to talk to him. "We met (British diplomats in Moscow), we were together with Dmitry (Kovtun). We were with Dmitry and with us was a lawyer. This meeting of course was not formal, because there was no legal requirement for it, but we offered our statements. It was a conversation. There were three high- ranking (British) embassy personnel present. We gave them our statements. They gave us written confirmation that they had received our statements, and suggested that they would contact us later and they said they were grateful to us for contacting them, as there was great interest in us, especially the British mass media, and that they should somehow respond to this interest. Today, we had a contact (with the British embassy) to agree about further action. I would not like to go into the details of these discussions, because both sides have agreed them not to comment in public, and I think Dmitry will support me in this," said Lugovoy at a radio broadcast videotaped by news cameras. Litvinenko had been investigating the killing of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, also a vocal critic of Putin, who was gunned down at the Moscow flat last month.

ITN Source | November 26, 2006

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