Former Russian spy in ICU

Post Comment   Email Story   Print Story   Read Comments

Tuesday, November 21, 2006 (London):Colonel Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy allegedly poisoned with a toxic metal, has been transferred to an intensive care unit in London after his condition deteriorated.

Litvinenko, a former KGB and Federal Security Service agent, was under armed guard at a London hospital, where he is fighting for his life after apparently being given the deadly poison thallium.

A friend of Litvinenko visited him in hospital on Monday and said he appeared to be turning yellow, suggesting liver problems.

Litvinenko was also visited by Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who said afterwards the British government should realise it was dealing with what he called a "bandit" regime in Moscow.

It was an alleged plot to kill Berezovsky that Litvinenko revealed in 1998 - triggering his flight into exile and marking him out as an enemy of the Kremlin.

Thallium poisoning

First photographs taken in hospital showed Litvinenko looking weak and bald after having suffered complete hair loss.

A doctor treating Litvinenko said tests showed he had been poisoned by thallium, a toxic metal found in rat poison.

A clinical toxicologist involved in his care said that Litvinenko's white cell count - generally used as a gauge of the immune system - is down to nearly zero.

Litvinenko, who had been looking into the killing of Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, told reporters last week that he fell ill on November 1 following a meal at a sushi restaurant with an Italian contact who claimed to have details about the murder.

British news outlets, including Sky News and The Independent newspaper, identified the contact as Mario Scaramella, an Italian academic who has helped investigate KGB activity in Italy during the Cold War.

Scaramella could not immediately be reached for comment.

Politkovskaya, who had written critically about abuses by Russian and pro-Moscow Chechen forces fighting separatists in Chechnya, was gunned down on October 7 inside her Moscow apartment building. Her attackers have not been found.

Probe begins

Police said a specialist crime unit began an investigation on Friday into how Litvinenko may have been poisoned.

No arrests had been made, said a Scotland Yard spokesperson, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with force policy.

Litvinenko's friends have said they believe Russian authorities could be behind the poisoning.

Kremlin critics claim poisoning - which is extremely hard to prove - is a common Soviet-era practice that seems to have reappeared since Putin, an ex-KGB officer, became President.

Litvinenko joined the KGB counter intelligence forces in 1988, and rose to the rank of colonel in the FSB.

He began specialising in terrorism and organised crime in 1991, and was transferred to the FSB's most secretive department on criminal organisations in 1997.

He fled Russia and claimed asylum in Britain in November 2000.
Read Related News