Russian secret agents implicated in nuclear poisoning of a critic of Putin

Based on the postmortem, Carly concluded that Litvinenko “ingested a large quantity of polonium-210 on or around 1 November 2006, largely, if not wholly, by oral ingestion rather than by inhalation. The calculated amount absorbed was far in excess of known survivability limits.” British police believe Litvinenko had consumed tea poisoned with polonium-210 on 1 November when he met with Andrei Lugovoi, an employee of the Russian Federal Protective Services, one of the two men suspected to be responsible for the poisoning. The second man was Dmitry Kovtun, also an employee of the FPS.

Cary said the post mortem team was fortunate that the doctors who treated Litvinenko had taken last-minute samples for alpha radiation testing, because without such samples the cause of death would have remained a mystery.

Another forensic scientist, Dr. Benjamin Swift, said that the case was the U.K.’s only recorded incident of polonium poisoning. When Swift was asked whether Litvinenko’s assassins may had chosen this “vanishingly rare” type of poison because they assumed it would not necessarily be detected. Swift replied: “Potentially yes.”

The inquiry also heard testimony from a senior nuclear scientist who had carried out extensive tests on a number of sites contaminated with polonium-210. They included the Pine Bar — where Litvinenko met Lugovoi and Kovtun and drank the poisoned cup of tea — as well as various London hotel rooms used by the two visiting Russian agents.

The scientist — identified as A1, and the head of nuclear forensics at the U.K.’s Atomic Weapons Establishment — said that less than a millionth of a gram of polonium would be enough to kill.

The Guardian notes that huge amounts of contamination were found in an eighth-floor room of the Sheraton hotel, where Lugovoi stayed between 25 and 28 October 2006. The polonium traces found in the bin of his bathroom were “off the scale,” with high levels also found in the bath, basin, and toilet seat, the nuclear scientists testified.

The atomic scientists also tested the teapot from the Millennium hotel, and found “full-scale deflection,” indicated the presence of a high concentration of radioactive material. There were further high readings on the chairs were Lugovoi and Kovtun had sat, especially on one right armrest.

Law enforcement officers told the inquiry on Tuesday that Lugovoi and Kovtun first tried to poison Litvinenko during an earlier trip to London on 16 October. Their efforts were unsuccessful, however, because the amount they had surreptitiously given Litvinenko was too small, and he survived.

Lugovoi three more three trips to London between 16 October and 1 November, and Kovtun made two such trips.

In an interview with Russia’s TASS news agency on Tuesday, Lugovoi called the inquiry a politically motivated “judicial farce” which had been revived in response to Britain’s disapproval of Russia’s involvement in Ukraine.

In 2007, Russia denied Britain’s request to extradite Lugovoi, calling it unconstitutional. The story is an old issue, Lugovoi insisted.