UK AUTHORITIES FIND SIGNIFICANT QUANTITY OF POLONIUM-210 IN CLOSE CONTACT OF MURDERED SPY, LITVINENKO
THREE PASSENGER JETS ARE GROUNDED FOR RADIATION EXPOSURE, EVIDENCE SAID TO POINT TO SOURCE IN MOSCOW
2 December 2006

Investigators in the UK have said they found a "significant quantity" of Polonium-210, the intensely radioactive isotope that killed former Russian spy Alexandr Litvinenko, in the body of a close associate of the victim. The discovery raises fears about wider contamination and the possibility that others may have been targetted.

It appears from media reports that the man who has been confirmed to have been contaminated by the radioactive substance that killed Litvinenko can be identified as one Mario Scaramella, an Italian contact of the victim, an academic and purported KGB expert, and a critic of the Putin government. He has told the press that both he and Alexandr Litvinenko received threatening letters in the days before the poisoning.

The Bloomberg news service reports "Scaramella on Nov. 21 identified himself as the friend who had met with Litvinenko at Itsu, a sushi restaurant on London's Piccadilly, the day the former spy became ill. Scaramella said he and Litvinenko had both received e-mailed threats days before the former spy's illness began."

This past week, as three British Airways jets were barred from flying after traces of radioactive isotopes were found on board (one in Moscow, two in London), 33,000 BA passengers and 3,000 crew members were to be notified they had been in contact with the planes during a total of 221 flights.

Russia's Interfax news agency has reported "Russia's leadership has expressed it has the political will to cooperate fully in all aspects". The top counterterrorism advisor to Vladimir Putin has said his department will cooperate in investigations into the presence of the radioactive substance aboard any BA jets that may have traveled the Moscow-London route.

The criminal probe has as such taken on elements of radiation terrorism investigations, a vast international scope and the intense pressure of suspicions of ties to state-actors. British investigators have said the evidence as to the origin of the radioactive isotope and the murder plot itself appears to be "moving firmly towards Moscow".

Bloomberg is quoted as reporting "Alex Goldfarb, a close associate of Litvinenko in London, said Thursday that the checks on BA planes flying back and forth between London and Moscow prior to the poisoning indicated that the 'physical source of the poison is in Moscow'".[s]

• Bloomberg: "Radioactive Isotope Found in Associate of Dead Spy, U.K. Says"
• Reuters: "Second case of radiation poisoning"
• Monsters & Critics: "Litvinenko affair snowballs with BA passenger alert (Roundup)"
• Benton Crier: "FBI joins investigation of poisoned spy"
• New Scientist: "Ex-spy's polonium poisoning suggests sophistication"

SCIENTISTS SAY LITVINENKO POLONIUM POISONING BEARS HALLMARKS OF SOPHISTICATED STATE OPERATION
28 November 2006

When former Soviet spy, Alexandr Litvinenko accused the Russian state, under Vladimir Putin, of organizing his murder, the diplomatic community was faced with a possibly explosive situation. Now scientists in the United Kingdom are saying the polonium-210 isotope found in Litvinenko's system suggests a level of sophistication that would require not only state sponsorship, but likely military cooperation. [Full Story]

FMR RUSSIAN SPY LITVINENKO DIES IN LONDON, AFTER APPARENT RADIATION POISONING
DEFECTOR ACCUSES PUTIN DIRECTLY FOR HIS KILLING
24 November 2006

Alexandr Litvinenko, a former Russian spy, who defected after working with the Soviet KGB, and who appears to have been poisoned, died yesterday in a London hospital. Litvinenko was reportedly investigating the contract killing of investigative journalist and fellow Kremlin critic, Anna Politkovskaya. [Full Story]