And those he came into contact with could be in danger as well. From the AP:
A former KGB agent turned Kremlin critic who blamed a “barbaric and ruthless” Russian President Vladimir Putin for his fatal poisoning had a toxic radioactive substance in his body, the British government said Friday.
In the statement dictated from his deathbed, Alexander Litvinenko accused the Russian leader of having “no respect for life, liberty or any civilized value.” In his first public response to the allegations, Putin said he deplored the former spy’s death but called the statement a political provocation.
The Health Protection Agency said the radioactive element polonium-210 had been found in Litvinenko’s urine.
The agency’s chief executive, Pat Troop, said that the high level indicated Litvinenko “would either have to have eaten it, inhaled it or taken it in through a wound.”
“We know he had a major dose,” she said.
Earlier, Home Secretary John Reid said Litvinenko’s death Thursday night was “linked to the presence of a radioactive substance in his body.”
Litvinenko, a vociferous critic of the Russian government, suffered heart failure late Thursday after days in intensive care at London’s University College Hospital battling a poison that had attacked his bone marrow and destroyed his immune system.
“You may succeed in silencing me but that silence comes at a price. You have shown yourself to be as barbaric and ruthless as your most hostile critics have claimed,” Litvinenko said in the statement read by his friend and spokesman Alex Goldfarb. The former spy said “the howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Mr. Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life.”
Goldfarb said Litvinenko had dictated the statement before he lost consciousness on Tuesday, and signed it in the presence of his wife, Marina.
Litvinenko’s father Walter said his son “fought this regime and this regime got him.”
“It was an excruciating death and he was taking it as a real man,” Walter Litvinenko said.
Putin’s government strongly denied involvement.
Who else would benefit from Litvinenko’s death? Russia returns to the cold-war style cloak and dagger tactics of its Soviet predecessors. And it’s selling defense systems to Iran.
The Russian defense minister on Wednesday defended Moscow’s deal to supply air defense missiles to Iran, saying they were purely defensive weapons with a limited range.
“I wish to underline that these systems cannot be used in offensive operations,” Sergei Ivanov told Russia Today television in an interview broadcast early Wednesday. “Secondly, they have a limited use as they are capable of protecting a small part of the Iranian territory.”
Moscow has refused to bow to Western pressure and cancel its US $700 million contract to sell 29 Tor-M1 air defense missile systems to Iran which was signed last December.
A Russian Defense Ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said that Moscow would fulfill the contract unless international sanctions against Iran make it illegal.
Russia and Iran, two peas in a pod.
Update: Ace writes that the Russian dissident reporter that Litvinenko was researching was also the victim of an attempted poisoning. He also comments on Russia’s regression back to the Soviet method of dealing with dissidents and reminds us of the most famous KBG poison plot. Remember, too, that one of the big concerns when Vladimir Putin came to power in Russia was that he was a KGB man.
Update II: According to the Daily Mail, Polonium-210 is the “deadliest poison known to man” and a fatal amount can be spread through the body by saliva or sweat. Unfortunately, not only has Litvinenko died from this dose, but his wife and 10 year old son could also be contaminated. Others who came into close contact with him such as doctors and nurses are at risk as well.
