LONDON, 1 December 2006 — The saga of the death in London of former KGB spy and anti-Putin critic Alexander Litvinenko by radiation poisoning took a dramatic new turn yesterday when British Home Secretary John Reid told Parliament that traces of Polonium-210, the radioactive agent that killed Litvinenko, have been found at 12 locations in London.
Events are unfolding at such a pace that it is difficult for the authorities to keep up with all the developments which cover three countries — Britain, Russia and Italy, although officials such as Reid have been quick to stress that the health risk to the public was low. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, warned yesterday that no “diplomatic or political barrier” would be permitted to obstruct the police inquiry, even if the evidence pointed to a state-sponsored assassination. “We are determined to find out what happened and who is responsible,” he added.
Today, pathologists will start the autopsy on Litvinenko’s corpse under special anti-radiation safety conditions. Litvinenko died Nov. 23 in a London hospital after suddenly falling ill on Nov. 1. At the brief opening of the inquest into Litvinenko’s death two days ago, Coroner Dr. Andrew Reid said the level of Polonium-210 in Litvinenko’s system indicated it had come from a source “other than a natural one.”
Radiation expert Dr. Denis d’Auria told Sky News that the post-mortem should not present any problems as long as the three pathologists take the necessary precautionary measures by donning chemical suits and breathing apparatus. Litvinenko’s body is being kept in a lead-lined coffin by British officials who have so far conducted tests on eight people in London who fear they may have been exposed to the radiation that killed him.
According to Dr. d’Auria, the only way they could become contaminated was through ingestion of the Polonium-210; or if the substance entered through a wound or cut; or if they inhaled the substance. He stressed that any explanation of how the traces of the Polonium-210 could be found in so many locations would be sheer speculation. At least on the planes, some experts suggest, the Polonium-210 could have leaked from a container or could have been present in passengers’ bodily fluids.
Heathrow, the world’s busiest airport, is once again bearing the brunt of the ensuing chaos with radioactive traces found on two British Airways (BA) planes and a third awaiting checks. Home Secretary Reid told MPs in the House of Commons that police had an interest in a fourth plane, this time belonging to Transaero, which had just landed from Moscow.
For the moment the disruption seems to be confined mostly to flights to and from Moscow. In fact, two BA planes are still stranded in Moscow awaiting radiation checks before being allowed to enter British airspace. BA confirmed that it is contacting 33,000 passengers from 221 flights and 3,000 members of staff, and hoped to conclude the exercise by today.
The hunt for radiation traces is still not over, with the home secretary warning that more locations could be screened. “To date, around 24 venues have or are being monitored and experts have confirmed traces of contamination at around 12 of these venues,” he said. He gave no details of the locations.
The UK’s Health Protection Agency yesterday confirmed that some 1,700 calls have been made to NHS Direct since the radiation scare came to light and so far 69 people have been referred to investigate possible exposure to radiation poisoning.
But of those, 18 have been referred to a specialist clinic for further tests.
Despite Reid saying that health officials believed that radioactive traces found on one of two British Airways planes which have shown contamination posed “no residual public health risk”, authorities in the UK are taking no chances.
The Boeing 737 belonging to Transaero, which landed at Heathrow yesterday morning, was met by a bevy of police vehicles which ushered the plane to a special area away from the main terminals.
According to Bernard Konstantin, a passenger on the plane and a resident of Moscow, passengers were confined to the plane for almost two hours, after which clearance was given for the plane to allow the passengers to disembark.
Many of the passengers complained of an over-reaction by the airport authorities and the police.
In a further twist, former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar was rushed to hospital with a mysterious illness after he collapsed attending a conference in Ireland last Friday.
Anatoly Chubais, a former finance minister and a close ally of Gaidar, told the London’s Financial Times yesterday that he suspected Gaidar had been poisoned, although he did rule out any involvement of Russia’s security services or the Kremlin.
Gaidar lives in Moscow and maintains close links with some Russian government officials but is a critic of President Vladimir Putin.
Tests at a Moscow hospital to which he was transferred found no signs of radiation poisoning, but Chubais said that doctors had so far been unable to identify the cause of his violent vomiting and bleeding.
In yet another twist worthy of a James Bond spy thriller, Gaidar once employed as a bodyguard Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB agent who met Litvinenko in a London hotel room on the day he was apparently poisoned.
