The Poisoning of a Spy
Alexander Litvinenko – The War Series Part 5
Have you ever wanted to be a spy? Sometime after the collapse of the Berlin wall I proudly announced my next mad plan, book on Perestroika in hand. A parent mumbled, peering over glasses from behind a newspaper, ‘Hmm, I’m not sure you’re spy material’. My intention to become a spy quickly swatted away. As a particularly naive teen, with a ridiculous level of trust in all human beings, the assessment was probably quite accurate. Not the best assets for a spy
A close school friend of mine had voiced her suspicions that her father might be a spy. She knew he went off to some government office each day, took the occassional trip abroad, but never uttered a word about his work. He was an unassuming looking man, grey suited, glasses, slightly balding, rather quiet, church going. I’m sure you can imagine the type. A few years later my friend’s sister applied to work for MI6. She was staggered by quite how much detail the agency had on their whole family, right down to what might seem largely irrelevant facts to you and I. That further cemented the idea that her father probably was a spy, or at least working in that department. We never got to hear definitively, but may do some day. I am sure it will make for fascinating listening, maybe he will write a book.
At one point during a close relative’s military career there was a lot of toing and froing to the Ministry of Defence in London, secure briefcases in hand. Apparently to do with the UN nuclear disarmament programme. We were greatly entertained with tales of how the British team would struggle to keep their heads above the table whilst being plied with Vodka. Dissappointingly, but necessarily, we would have to imagine 007 type scenarios, about everything else that must have gone on, everything that sat under the Official Secrets Act. We had very active imaginations in those days. It was probably nowhere near as exciting and punctuated by horrendous hangovers. The visits to different nations under the agreement, however, would likely allow the UN to compare aerial reconnaisance with what teams would be allowed to see on the ground. Presumably marked differences would be logged and further investigations conducted.
Radiological terrorism
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was signed in 1968 by 62 countries including UK, USA and Russia. The three key points were non proliferation of nuclear weapons, disarmament and peaceful use of nuclear energy facilities. In 1995 the treaty was extended indefinitely. Noteably Pakistan, India and Israel refused to sign. Yair Lapid, Prime Minister of Israel in August 2022 repeated Israel’s anti-agreement position. Benjamin Netanyahu mistakenly spoke of Israel as a nuclear power in a 2020 Press conference. There are only five nuclear powers recognised by the treaty – they are the USA, United Kingdom, France, Russia and China. Iran signed the agreement but appears to be continuing with proliferation according to this article, for which it is challenged by the international community.
UN policy on access to weapons of mass destruction covers both nuclear and radiological elements together with biological and chemical. These are categorised as terrorist activities yet there are certain types of radioactive material that are produced specifically and not as a bi-product of energy production. Production would require facilities usually under the oversight of governmental bodies, or directly under the control of governments. Therefore, if radiological poisoning were carried out by bad actors, it is almost certain that it was either taken covertly from one of these facilities, or somebody knowingly gave it to them. Of course this does not include findings on cumulative radiological contamination through dark lightning.
Green tea at the Pine Bar
The highly publicised poisoning of Alexander ‘Sasha’ Litvinenko on British soil in 2006 indicates two Russian men, business associates of Litvinenko, had attempted to assassinate him more than once, succeeding on the last try. The British press stated that they were likely instructed to poison him because of his anti-Putin stance. He was poisoned on 1st November 2006, later discovered to be through the radioactive substance Polonium 210.
Litvinenko was an ex KGB and FSB spy who had defected to the UK in 2000. He had been in the ‘FSB Directorate of Analysis and Suppression of Criminal Groups’, and warned Putin about the corruption at the heart of the ‘system’.
After claiming asylum (quietly) in Heathrow in 2000 he was said to have worked as an informant for the British Intelligence services from 2003. This Guardian article reported he was not a double agent because he was not in contact with MI6 when he was in Russia. It could be that this was an official line fed to the press, and may or may not be true. He was living with his wife and son in a new build property, possibly a flat, in Osier Crescent, Muswell Hill, London.
Lugovoy was meeting with Litvinenko to talk about arrangements for a meeting the following day at a company called Global Risk, possibly Global Risk Solutions Inc. a Florida based company that deals with insurance claims related to property, casualty and environmental losses. The company launched in 2002, and officially opened an office London in 2013. Presumably insurance specialists were already operating on behalf of the company around the world. Litvinenko was also said to have been investigating connections between Spanish crime syndicates and Russian individuals.
Either Dmitry Kovtun or Andrei Lugovoy, both businessmen connected to the KGB and FSB, supposedly put the radioactive substance in a pot of green tea. They tried to get a ‘cook’ to do it for them in the kitchens, according to a German contact of Lugovoy’s based in Hamburg, referred to as D2 in reports, but that plan fell through. In the interview with detectives on the 19th November, just four days before he died, Litvinenko said that Lugovoy had come out of the bar to greet him in the hotel foyer. When they went in to the bar, the silver style tea pot containing green tea was already on the table with cups around it. It appeared to have been drunk from by Lugovoy and his companions, though just Lugovoy was present at that point. Litvinenko stated he was asked by the waiter and then Andrei if he was going to have anything, to which he answered no.
Andrei suggested he could finish off the tea and asked for a clean cup from the waiter. Litvinenko poured himself a cup from the little remaining at the bottom of the pot and only took a few sips as it was cold and not to his taste. Lugovoy did not drink from the pot in Litvinenko’s presence but did not particularly insist on Litvinenko drinking from it either. A man called Vologia/Volodia joins them at the table. It is unclear from this transcript if this is Kovtun or another man. At this point Litvinenko says that he knew these men were trying to kill him as he had been told they were. He still drank from the teapot that was on the table, even though there was the choice to order something else. He added he did not want anyone paying for him and did not have the funds to pay an expensive drinks bill. He said he felt strange as he left the hotel bar. The level of detail Litvinenko goes to in this interview spanning approximately 46 minutes is distinct, particularly for a man who is four days away from death.
Scaramella
Litvinenko also had a meeting with a man called Mario Scaramella at Itsu, the sushi restaurant in Piccadilly. Scaramella only drank a glass of water. It is unclear if Litvinenko ate or drank. It was Litvinenko’s first meeting of the day and the hotel the second meeting. Amounts of the radioactive isotope were found in the basement part of the restauraunt. Scaramella, after saying he had had a heavy dose of polonium, then wavered saying he was not contaminated, was hospitalised on the 1 December, four weeks after the meeting. According to hospital staff he was not showing any signs of radiation poisoning but was undergoing tests, which revealed he was positive for Polonium 210.
Scaramella wanted to meet Litvinenko in person with print outs of documents and was reported to have been very nervous, telling Litvinenko that a death threat had been issued against both of them. He had apparently been threatened by the Chechens if he ‘touched Litvinenko’. He had travelled to London for a conference but instead had decided to meet with Litvinenko to warn him of the threat. There seems to be some doubt as to whether Scaramella was even southern Italian, given he lacked many of the mannerisms seen in people from the region. The Italian government confirmed that he was not one of their intelligence assets, but some suggested he might have been a Russian asset.
Scaramella was originally from Naples, apparently trained as a lawyer and a nuclear academic, though he did not appear particularly academic. He was also an adviser to the Intelligence and Mitrokhin Dossier Investigative Commission appointed by the Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Berlusconi would later go on to face charges including a sex scandal, corruption and tax evasion and was charged with tax fraud in 2013. This Commission was formed off the back of the notes made by Vasiliy Mitrokhin, who was senior archivist in the KGB foreign archive from 1972-1984. The collection is now held in Churchill College, Cambridge. As these are notes, not original KGB documents, the credibility of the author is a factor in authenticity. Researchers can request to view these notes privately.
Hospitalisation
The two meetings were followed by Litvinenko visiting the home of Boris Beresovsky, another Russian businessman and associate. Later that night, at home with his wife, Litvinenko began to vomit and passed bloody diarrhoea. After three days of continuing sickness he asked his wife to call an ambulance and was admitted to Barnet Hospital on the 4th November. This means for three days, he and his wife were in close quarters in their home with aerosolised particles of vomit and faeces potentially containing excreted Polonium 210 and Alpha particles. There are no reports of her becoming unwell, or being hospitalised, though she tested positive for the presence of Polonium 210 when it was eventually discovered as the source of the poisoning.
At Barnet Hospital in London Litvinenko did not disclose his true identity, instead using his pseudonym Edwin Carter. Neither did he report his suspicion that he had been poisoned until his condition worsened. This means treating staff would not have been taking the precautions that would be required with a patient contaminated with a highly radioactive substance. He was transferred to University Hospital in London for intensive care only on the 17th November after an announcement to the press on the 11th November that he was very unwell and had likely been poisoned.
The hospital believed it was Thallium poisoning originally, from group 13 of the periodic table, a poor or post transition metal with an atomic mass of 204.3833 u. Symptoms of Thallium poisoning are comparable to other poisonous elements: nausea, diarrhoea, vomiting, neuropathy, hair loss, confusing coma. The list long as with many other poisons. Along with gastrointestinal symptoms other effects are throat swelling, often seen in cases of poisoning, and allergic reaction. It is also odourless and colourless.
Polonium 210
It was only a few hours before Litvinenko died that doctors identified Polonium 210 as the poison. It was detected in his urine. Of the 76 healthcare staff who had cared or been in contact with Livinenko across both hospitals Barnet and University College Hospital London, 69 people were tested and all tests returned negative. No staff member was reported to have fallen ill.
Polonium can be synthesised by irradiating Bismuth isotope Bi-209. Bismuth, a post transition metal has a very similar chemistry to arsenic and antimony. They sit in the order Arsenic, Antimony and Bismuth, one below the other on the periodic table in group 15. Interestingly Arsenic, Antimony and Polonium are all metalloids. Bismuth 209 has the longest half-life of any isotope, and when it does decay it decays in to an alpha particle and a packet of energy. Polonium has a much shorter half-life, of 138 days, but a biological half-life of 50 days (how long it takes the body to remove it). It decays in to stable Lead-206 and as it does so it emits mostly alpha particles. Therefore, when the forensic team swept Itsu and the Pine Bar they used alpha particle detection equipment. Just one gram of Polonium 210 emits 140 watts of energy each second. 1 microgram is estimated to be enough to deliver a lethal dose. That is one millionth of a gram. Atomic mass of polonium 210 is 209.983, one microgram would contain 6.022136651675e+17 atoms.
Handling of Polonium must be done in a regulated environment, making use of a negative pressure alpha glove box (laboratory) to prevent escape of particles. It can be carried in glass vials but when it is released the primary radioactive material can spread as do the emitted alpha particles.
As the half-life of the substance is lengthy and the biological half life is approximately 50 days, the 22 days before Litvinenko died but was severely unwell, particularly in the early stages of vomiting and bloody diarrhoea, he will have been shedding both Polonium 210 and alpha particles. Whilst these only have a range of 3.5 centimetres, particles can become lodged on surfaces and clothing and may also be carried by droplet. On the safety data sheet routes of contamination include ‘Ingestion, inhalation, puncture, wound, skin contamination absorption’ Inhalation suggests that particles can become airborne. This is why people with radioactive thyroid treatment must keep a distance of 6 feet from others, use different kitchen utensils and use a separate bathroom. 50% of Polonium 210 is vaporized in air in 45 hours at 55°C.
It is strange therefore that his wife, who will have been in their home during his initial 3 days of illness and when she and their friends attended his bedside in hospital, none of them became unwell. The hospital of course was still working on the premise that the poison was Thallium, until Polonium was identified a few hours before his death, therefore measures for managing radioactive patients may not have been taken. Boris Berezovsky also remained well throughout, after having being in close quarters with Litvinenko after the poisoning. Litvinenko suffered a heart attack on the night of the 22nd November and died on the 23rd.
Seven people in the Pine Bar were reported to have low levels of polonium 210 and another 250 people called in for testing, but were not tested because the focus was on the sushi bar. It is unclear if any of these people felt unwell. Marina Litvinenko was reported to have the highest levels of polonium 210, but it seems that she was not affected physically.
Decontamination Operation
The investigation claimed to have found a trail of Polonium 210 in Moscow, on plane seats and in various locations around London but at no point was anyone else admitted to hospital with any recognisable degree of radiation poisoning.
There are scant details on which parts of the Millenium Hotel were closed for use during the investigation period, but the Itsu restaurant was completely boarded up according to an account on Tripadvisor (2006). Closure and clean up only began at Itsu and the Hotel after the police began their investigation on the 16th November. This means members of the public had been potentially exposed to primary and secondary radiation from Polonium 210 particles for some time.
According to the European Court of Human Rights Press release, put out on 21 September 2021, two previous attempts were made, first on 16th October 2006, when Litvinenko became unwell after his meeting with both Lugovoy and Kotvun. This theory was formulated by investigators by the patterns of visits and distribution of Polonium 210 in hotel rooms and restaurant (may have been Itsu) and various other locations they visited at that time. A second attempt was possibly made when Lugovoy visited London alone on the 25-28th October. Polonium 210 was found in the U-bend of the room he stayed in on that visit. The release states traces of Polonium 210 were found also in the men’s toilets in the foyer of the Millenium hotel after the 1st November meeting, which Litvinenko had not visited but the other two men had.
The decontamination programme covered 50 locations around London, and involved measures such as chipping the enamel off baths rather than throwing the whole bath away. Decon-90, a potassium hydroxide based solution was used to wipe down surfaces. It is a cleaner effective for removal of bacteria, chemical contaminants and radioactive residue.
The clean up in the Millenium Hotel, the site of the poisoning, took place in March 2007, not immediately after the poisoning. It took 19 days to clean up the hotel. If the process was started on March 1st that means any radioactive particles were left in place, apart from anything that may have been involved in the initial cleaning, for 119 days. Just a few weeks short of the half-life of Polonium 210. Litvinenko’s body was apparently buried in a lead-lined coffin in Highgate cemetery because of the high levels of radiation he was emitting. During the autopsy his body was reportedly so radioactive that pathologists used two suits instead of one and left his body in situ for two days. Yet it was possible for staff, family and friends to attend to him and sit at his bedside for three weeks and remain completely well.
In 2013 Yasser Arafat’s wife called for exumation of her husband’s body, and further tests to be carried out by a Swiss laboratory in 2013. This was at the same time that Mrs Litvinenko was challenging the courts about a public enquiry in to her husband’s death. The Swiss laboratory would go on to confirm Yasser Arafat had been poisoned with Polonium 210, despite the absence of two key markers for radiation poisoning - hair loss and a weakened immune system through the distruction of white blood cells.
He fell ill on the 12 October 2004, and was admitted on the 29th November to the French military Hôpital d'instruction des armées Percy on the outskirts of Paris. The symptoms he experienced included nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and liver and kidney failure. He eventually died of a large cerebral haemorrhage on the 11th November after being in a coma from the 3rd of November. Reports at the time did not suggest poisoning.
In our study of how white blood cells behave after exposure to radiation patients who experience a heavy dose of radiation will always experience a dramatic drop in white blood cells around days 3 or 4 of exposure and, if the patient is to recover, will only start to rise again after approximately 30 days. It is possible that another non radioactive poison was used to kill Yasser Arafat.
Mrs Litvinenko made the challenge in 2013 to the courts to conduct a public enquiry. An enquiry that might contradict the evidence already heard in her husband’s case. The QC representing her claimed that putting information they had gathered on record was in national interests. They believed that the Kremlin ordered the assassination as Litvinenko was working for MI6. The QC also stated that the event of Litvinenko’s poisoning was an ‘act of nuclear terrorism’ on the streets of London. The courts refused to cover Mrs Litvinenko’s costs to bring the case, meaning she would have had to pay it out of her own pocket, money that she did not have. Theresa May, who was home secretary at the time, refused to make a decision on a public enquiry until the inquest had been completed.
On the 23rd March, 2013, just over a year before the public enquiry would be formed (July 2014) Litvinenko’s friend Boris Berezovsky was found dead in his bathroom in the family’s house in Ascot. The signs, door locked from the inside and strangulation marks, were that he took his own life. His assets had been frozen by the British Government and he had significant money issues having been defeated in a civil case by Roman Abramovich. He was preparing to give evidence in the Litvinenko case.
The report on the enquiry, written by Sir Robert Owen was published in January 2016, ten years after Litvinenko’s death. It would serve journalists revisiting the case to review the report linked above. Mrs Litvinenko continued in her efforts to make Britain publicly acknowledge the role Russia may have played in her husband’s poisoning in 2016 by requesting that Theresa May bring sanctions against Russia - a provocative move.
Another puzzle piece in the case is that apparently Russian Intelligence were tracking Kovtun and Lugovoy before the assassination occurred, according to a secret memo recording a meeting between the CIA and FSB on 7th December. The memo recounted the following: ‘that Safonov claimed that "Russian authorities in London had known about and followed individuals moving radioactive substances into the city but were told by the British that they were under control before the poisoning took place"’. Were British Intelligence Services aware of their movements and meetings with Litvinenko or not? Were radioactive substances really being tracked?
Wikileaks officially launch on the 4th October 2006 after years in the planning, just 4 weeks before the death of Alexander Litvinenko. The organisation received their first classified documents through Tor. The main document, supposedly about a plan to take out Somali officials by the rebels, was not posted to the site until December. One wonders if any documents were sent to this organisation concerning Litvinenko.
* Footnote, on October 31st and November 1st 2006 Storm Britta caused a devastating storm surge in the southern part of the North Sea. In the same year bird flu H5N1 broke out spreading not only through the global bird population but in humans as well. It was just months after Litvinenko’s death that the American Subprime market collapse triggered a global stock market sell off and global recession.
Thank you Seb for your invaluable help as always.