Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

{{Main|Alexander Litvinenko}}

File:AlexanderLitvinenko.jpg

Alexander Litvinenko was a former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) who escaped prosecution in Russia and received in the United Kingdom political asylum in spring 2001.{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/world/europe/03iht-spy.3760139.html?pagewanted=all |title=Alexander Litvinenko lived and died in world of violence and betrayal |last=Cowell |first=Alan |author2=Shane, Scott |author3=Myers, Steven Lee |author4=Klimenko, Viktor |date=3 November 2006 |work=International Herald Tribune |access-date=6 April 2010 |location=London/Washington, D.C./Moscow |archive-date=18 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160118100552/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/world/europe/03iht-spy.3760139.html?pagewanted=all |url-status=live }} In his books, Blowing up Russia: Terror from Within and Lubyanka Criminal Group, Litvinenko alleged that the FSB organized the bombing of apartment buildings in Moscow and other Russian cities in 1999 to pave the way for the Second Chechen War, which brought Vladimir Putin to power.Johns Hopkins University and Hoover Institute scholar David Satter described this controversy in the United States House of Representatives: "With Yeltsin and his family facing possible criminal prosecution, however, a plan was put into motion to put in place a successor who would guarantee that Yeltsin and his family would be safe from prosecution and the criminal division of property in the country would not be subject to reexamination. For "Operation Successor" to succeed, however, it was necessary to have a massive provocation. In my view, this provocation was the bombing in September 1999 of the apartment building bombings in Moscow, Buinaksk, and Volgodonsk. In the aftermath of these attacks, which claimed 300 lives, a new war was launched against Chechnya. Putin, the newly appointed prime minister who was put in charge of that war, achieved overnight popularity. Yeltsin resigned early. Putin was elected president and his first act was to guarantee Yeltsin immunity from prosecution." [http://www.hudson.org/files/publications/SatterHouseTestimony2007.pdf (PDF)] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927065706/http://www.hudson.org/files/publications/SatterHouseTestimony2007.pdf |date=27 September 2011 }} He accused Russian secret services of having arranged the Moscow theater hostage crisis, through their Chechen agent provocateur, and having organised the 1999 Armenian parliament shooting.{{cite web| title = Russia Denies Involvement in 1999 Armenian Parliament Shooting | date = 12 May 2005| url = http://www.armeniandiaspora.com/showthread.php?26585-Russia-Denies-Involvement-in-1999-Armenian-Parliament-Shooting| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160303173102/http://www.armeniandiaspora.com/showthread.php?26585-Russia-Denies-Involvement-in-1999-Armenian-Parliament-Shooting| url-status = dead| archive-date = 3 March 2016| access-date =25 March 2007 }} He also claimed that the Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was under FSB control when he visited Russia in 1997.[http://cicentre.com/Documents/russia_islam_not_separate.html Russia and Islam are not Separate: Why Russia backs Al-Qaeda] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071219040336/http://cicentre.com/Documents/russia_islam_not_separate.html |date=19 December 2007 }}, by Konstantin Preobrazhensky. According to Preobrazhenskiy, "At that time, Litvinenko was the Head of the Subdivision for Internationally Wanted Terrorists of the First Department of the Operative-Inquiry Directorate of the FSB Anti-Terrorist Department. He was ordered to undertake the delicate mission of securing Al-Zawahiri from unintentional disclosure by the Russian police. Though Al-Zawahiri had been brought to Russia by the FSB using a false passport, it was still possible for the police to learn about his arrival and report to Moscow for verification. Such a process could disclose Al-Zawahiri as an FSB collaborator. In order to prevent this, Litvinenko visited a group of the highly placed police officers to notify them in advance."

Upon his arrival in London, he continued to support the Russian oligarch in exile, Boris Berezovsky, in his media campaign against the Russian government.{{Cite book|title=Putin, Russia's choice|url=https://archive.org/details/putinrussiaschoi00sakw_259|url-access=limited|last=Sakwa|first=Richard|author-link=Richard Sakwa|year=2008|edition=2nd|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-40765-6|pages=[https://archive.org/details/putinrussiaschoi00sakw_259/page/n170 158]–159}}

Just two weeks before his death, Litvinenko accused Putin of ordering the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist and human rights activist.Alex Goldfarb and Marina Litvinenko. Death of a Dissident: The Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the Return of the KGB, The Free Press (2007) {{ISBN|1-4165-5165-4}}{{Cite web |date=2015-03-02 |title=The mysterious fates met by Putin critics |url=https://www.france24.com/en/20150302-mysterious-fates-putin-critics-nemtsov-khodorkovsky-litvinenko-politkovskaya |access-date=2022-04-05 |website=France 24 |language=en |archive-date=5 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220405161423/https://www.france24.com/en/20150302-mysterious-fates-putin-critics-nemtsov-khodorkovsky-litvinenko-politkovskaya |url-status=live }}

On 1 November 2006, Litvinenko suddenly fell ill. Earlier that day he had met two Russian ex-KGB officers, Andrey Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun, at the Pine Bar of the Millennium Hotel in London.{{Cite news|date=27 January 2015|title=Timeline: Alexander Litvinenko death case|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-30929940|access-date=7 March 2022|archive-date=8 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220308135140/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-30929940|url-status=live}}{{Cite news |agency=The Associated Press |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna16831811 |title=Reported suspect in spy poisoning lashes out |work=NBC News |date=2010-08-05 |accessdate=2022-03-24 |archive-date=24 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220324092252/https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna16831811 |url-status=live }} Lugovoy is a former bodyguard of Russian ex-Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar (also reportedly poisoned in November 2006) and later the chief of security for the Russian TV channel ORT. Litvinenko had also had lunch at Itsu, a sushi restaurant on Piccadilly in London, with an Italian officer and "nuclear expert", Mario Scaramella, to whom he made allegations regarding Romano Prodi's connections with the KGB.{{cite web

| last = Batten

| first =Gerard

| title = Gerard Batten MEP – "60 second speech to the European Parliament "Romano Prodi" – Strasbourg

| publisher = United Kingdom Independence Party

| date = 3 April 2006

| url = http://www.ukip.org/ukip_news/gen12.php?t=1&id=2055

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061013081221/http://www.ukip.org/ukip_news/gen12.php?t=1&id=2055

| archive-date = 13 October 2006

| access-date =21 November 2006 }} Scaramella, attached to the Mitrokhin Commission investigating KGB penetration of Italian politics, claimed to have information on the death of Anna Politkovskaya, 48, a journalist who was killed at her Moscow apartment in October 2006. He passed Litvinenko papers supposedly concerning her fate. On 20 November, it was reported that Scaramella had gone into hiding and feared for his life.{{cite news

|last = Owen

|first = Richard

|title = Exile's contact in hiding after 'being made a scapegoat'

|work = The Times

|date = 20 November 2006

|url = http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2462162,00.html

|access-date = 21 November 2006

|location = London

|archive-date = 2 December 2008

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081202022843/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2462162,00.html

|url-status = dead

}}

On the evening of 1 November, Litvinenko began vomiting and later developed bloody diarrhea. At one point, he could not walk without assistance. As the pain intensified, Litvinenko asked his wife to call an ambulance,Alan Cowell, The Terminal Spy{{Page needed|date=April 2022}} before being hospitalized on 3 November. For several days, Litvinenko's condition worsened as doctors searched for the cause of the illness. Surrounded by friends, Litvinenko became physically weak, and spent periods unconscious. On his deathbed, Litvinenko stated to detectives that he believed President Putin had directly ordered his assassination.{{cite web |title=Russia's Putin probably approved London murder of ex-KGB agent Litvinenko: UK inquiry |date=21 January 2016 |last=Holden |first=Michael |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-russia-litvinenko/russias-putin-probably-approved-london-murder-of-ex-kgb-agent-litvinenko-uk-inquiry-idUSKCN0UZ0Z6 |accessdate=29 March 2022 |archive-date=29 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220329155516/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-russia-litvinenko/russias-putin-probably-approved-london-murder-of-ex-kgb-agent-litvinenko-uk-inquiry-idUSKCN0UZ0Z6 |url-status=live }} Three days before his death, photographs were taken of Litvinenko and released to the public.{{cite web |title =The sequence of events surrounding the death of Alexander Litvinenko |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1535871/The-sequence-of-events-surrounding-the-death-of-Alexander-Litvinenko.html |date=3 December 2006 |work=The Telegraph |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160707053647/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1535871/The-sequence-of-events-surrounding-the-death-of-Alexander-Litvinenko.html |archivedate=7 July 2016|accessdate=3 April 2022}}{{cite web |title =Alexander Litvinenko: the man who solved his own murder |date =19 January 2016 |last=Harding |first=Luke |author-link=Luke Harding |work=The Guardian |url =https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/19/alexander-litvinenko-the-man-who-solved-his-own-murder |archiveurl =https://web.archive.org/web/20220301085112/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/19/alexander-litvinenko-the-man-who-solved-his-own-murder |archivedate =1 March 2022 |accessdate =26 March 2022 }} "I want the world to see what they did to me," he said.

{{anchor|Edwin Carter}}On 3 November 2006, Litvinenko (under the pseudonym of Edwin Carter) was admitted to Barnet Hospital in north London, where he was initially treated for gastroenteritis.{{cite journal

|url = http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(16)00144-6/abstract

|last = Nathwani

|first = Amit C

|title = Polonium-210 poisoning: a first-hand account

|journal = The Lancet

|volume = 388

|issue = 10049

|pages = 1075–1080

|date = 10 September 2016

|doi = 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)00144-6

|pmid = 27461439

|s2cid = 892003

|access-date = 6 August 2016

|archive-date = 4 July 2023

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230704230643/https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(16)00144-6/fulltext

|url-status = live

}} As his condition worsened, he told doctors his true identity and claimed to have been poisoned, before being transferred on 17 November to University College Hospital in central London for intensive care. Subsequently, his blood and urine samples were sent to the UK's Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE), where they were tested for radioactive poison using gamma spectroscopy. No discernible gamma rays were initially detected, but a small gamma ray spike was noticed at an energy of 803 kilo-electronvolts (keV), barely visible above the background.

The BBC reported that by coincidence another scientist, who had worked on Britain's early atomic bomb programme decades before, happened to overhear a discussion about the small spike and recognised it as the gamma ray signal from the radioactive decay of polonium-210, which was a critical component of early nuclear bombs. On the evening of 22 November, shortly before his death, his doctors were informed the poison was likely to be polonium-210. Further tests on a larger urine sample using spectroscopy designed to detect alpha particles confirmed the result the following day.{{cite news|title=Litvinenko: A deadly trail of polonium|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-33678717|access-date=21 January 2016|work=BBC News|date=28 July 2015|archive-date=21 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160121130820/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-33678717|url-status=live}}

Unlike some other sources of radiation, polonium-210 emits very little gamma radiation, but large amounts of alpha particles which are relatively difficult to detect with common radiation detectors such as Geiger counters. This explained why tests conducted by doctors and Scotland Yard at the hospital with Geiger counters were negative. Both gamma rays and alpha particles are classified as ionizing radiation, which can cause radiation damage. An alpha-emitting substance can cause significant damage only if ingested or inhaled, acting on living cells like a short-range weapon."Death of a dissident", pages 336–341. Hours before his death, Litvinenko was tested for alpha-emitters using special equipment.

Shortly after his death, the UK's Health Protection Agency (HPA) stated that tests had established Litvinenko had significant amounts of the radionuclide polonium-210 (²¹⁰Po) in his body, and that those who had contact with Litvinenko may also have been exposed to radiation.

{{cite web

| title = Health Protection Agency press release

| publisher = HPA

| date = 24 November 2006

| url =http://www.hpa.org.uk/hpa/news/articles/press_releases/2006/241106_litvinenko.htm

| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20061126112245/http://www.hpa.org.uk/hpa/news/articles/press_releases/2006/241106_litvinenko.htm

| archive-date =26 November 2006

| access-date =24 November 2006 }}{{cite news

|title = Trio in clinic after spy's death

|work = BBC News

|date = 27 November 2006

|url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6186666.stm

|access-date = 27 November 2006

|archive-date = 29 November 2006

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061129155855/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6186666.stm

|url-status = live

}} Mario Scaramella, who had eaten with Litvinenko at Itsu, reported that doctors had told him the body had five times the lethal dose of polonium-210. However, the table where he had sat with Litvinenko on 1 November was later found to be free from radioactive contamination.{{cite book | title=The Litvinenko File | publisher=Pan Macmillan | author=Sixsmith, Martin |author-link=Martin Sixsmith | year=2011 | isbn=9780330539012 |page=56}} On 30 November, it was reported that further medical tests had discovered Scaramella was not contaminated at all. British and US government officials said the use of ²¹⁰Po as a poison had never been documented before, and it was probably the first time anyone had been tested for the presence of ²¹⁰Po in their body.{{Citation needed|date=May 2022}}

It was later discovered that the poison was in a teapot at the Millennium Hotel's Pine Bar from which Litvinenko drank some green tea on 1 November.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35370819|title=President Putin 'probably approved Litvinkenko murder'|date=21 January 2016|access-date=21 May 2022|work=BBC News|archive-date=9 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210909202035/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35370819|url-status=live}}{{cite web |title=Russian state "involved" in ex-KGB agent's London murder, inquiry hears |date=30 July 2015 |last=Holden |first=Michael |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-russia-litvinenko-idINKCN0Q41CM20150730 |accessdate=29 May 2022 |archive-date=27 May 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220527235334/https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-russia-litvinenko-idINKCN0Q41CM20150730 |url-status=live }} The symptoms seen in Litvinenko appeared consistent with an administered activity of approximately 2 GBq (50 mCi), which corresponds to about 10 micrograms of ²¹⁰Po. That is 200 times the median lethal dose of around 238 μCi or 50 nanograms in the case of ingestion.{{cite web

| url=http://www.3rd1000.com/elements/Polonium.htm#Overview

| title=Polonium

| access-date=3 August 2008

| archive-date=9 May 2008

| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509164304/http://www.3rd1000.com/elements/Polonium.htm#Overview

| url-status=live

}} The studies of the biodistribution of ²¹⁰Po using gamma-ray spectrometry in post-mortem samples were used to estimate intake as 4.4 GBq.{{cite journal

|url = http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(16)00144-6/abstract

|last = Nathwani

|first = Amit C

|title = Polonium-210 poisoning: a first-hand account

|journal = The Lancet

|volume = 388

|issue = 10049

|pages = 1075–1080

|doi = 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)00144-6

|pmid = 27461439

|access-date = 6 August 2016

|year = 2016

|s2cid = 892003

|archive-date = 4 July 2023

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230704230643/https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(16)00144-6/fulltext

|url-status = live

}}

Scotland Yard initially investigated claims that Litvinenko was poisoned with thallium. It was reported that early tests appeared to confirm the presence of the poison.{{cite news

|last = Townsend

|first = Mark

|title = Poisoning of Russian agent raises fears of UK vendetta

|work = The Guardian

|date = 19 November 2006

|url = https://www.theguardian.com/russia/article/0,,1952004,00.html

|access-date = 21 November 2006

|location = London

|archive-date = 19 August 2023

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230819194037/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/nov/19/russia.world

|url-status = live

}}{{cite news

|last = Murphy

|first = Kim

|title = Poison victim is Kremlin critic

|work = Los Angeles Times

|date = 21 November 2006

|url = http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-poison21nov21,1,1336322.story?coll=la-headlines-world

|access-date = 23 September 2013

|archive-date = 19 August 2023

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230819194112/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-nov-21-fg-poison21-story.html

|url-status = live

}} Among the distinctive effects of thallium poisoning are hair loss and damage to peripheral nerves,{{cite news

| title = Ex-spy's '50% chance of survival{{'-}}

|work=The Guardian

| date = 19 November 2006

| url = https://www.theguardian.com/uklatest/story/0,,-6225933,00.html

| access-date =21 November 2006

| location=London}}{{Dead link |date=September 2009}} and a photograph of Litvinenko in hospital, released to the media on his behalf,{{cite news

|last = Cobain

|first = Ian

|title = Poisoned former KGB man dies in hospital

|work = The Guardian

|date = 24 November 2006

|url = https://www.theguardian.com/russia/article/0,,1955864,00.html

|access-date = 24 November 2006

|location = London

|archive-date = 19 August 2023

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230819194037/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/nov/24/russia.world

|url-status = live

}} indeed showed his hair to have fallen out. Litvinenko attributed his initial survival to his cardiovascular fitness and swift medical treatment. It was later suggested a radioactive isotope of thallium might have been used to poison Litvinenko.{{cite news

| title = London doctor: Radioactive poison may be in ex-Russian spy

| url = https://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-11-20-spy_x.htm

| date = 21 November 2006

| access-date =24 November 2006

|work=USA Today }} Amit Nathwani, one of Litvinenko's physicians, said "His symptoms are slightly odd for thallium poisoning, and the chemical levels of thallium we were able to detect are not the kind of levels you'd see in toxicity."{{cite news

| title = Doctors in dark on poisoned ex-spy

| url = http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/11/21/uk.spypoisoned/index.html

| date = 21 November 2006

| access-date = 22 November 2006

| publisher = CNN

| archive-date = 21 November 2006

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061121195700/http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/11/21/uk.spypoisoned/index.html

| url-status = live

}} Litvinenko's condition deteriorated, and he was moved into intensive care on 20 November. Hours before his death, three unidentified circular-shaped objects were found in his stomach via an X-ray scan.{{cite news

| title = Murió Alexander Litvinenko, el ex espía ruso que fue envenenado en Londres

| url = http://www.eltiempo.com/internacional/europa/noticias/ARTICULO-WEB-NOTA_INTERIOR-3337667.html

| date = 24 November 2006

| access-date =24 November 2006

| newspaper = El Tiempo|language=es}}{{Dead link |date=September 2009}} It is thought these objects were almost certainly shadows caused by the presence of Prussian blue, the treatment he had been given for thallium poisoning.{{cite news

| title = Ex-spy's condition deteriorates

| publisher = BBC

| date = 24 November 2006

| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6176004.stm

| access-date = 24 November 2006

| archive-date = 19 August 2023

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230819194039/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6176004.stm

| url-status = live

}}

File:LitvinenkoGrave.JPG]]

Late on 22 November, Litvinenko's heart failed, and he died the following day; the official time of death was 9:21 pm at University College Hospital in London.{{cite news

| title = Poisoned Russian former spy dies

| publisher = CNN

| date = 23 November 2006

| url = http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/11/23/uk.spypoisoned/index.html

| access-date =23 November 2006

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061124044529/http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/11/23/uk.spypoisoned/index.html

| archive-date = 24 November 2006}}

The autopsy took place on 1 December.{{cite web

| title = Spy Death: Italian Cleared By Medics

| publisher = Sky News

| date = 1 December 2006

| url = http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Sky-News-Archive/Article/200806413554873

| quote = thought to have ingested or inhaled polonium-210

| access-date = 9 September 2009

| archive-date = 13 August 2009

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090813172420/http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Sky-News-Archive/Article/200806413554873

| url-status = live

}}

Litvinenko had ingested polonium-210, a poisonous radioactive isotope.{{cite news |first =Philippe |last= Naughton |title =British police arrive in Moscow to hunt for spy death clues |work=The Times| date = 4 December 2006| url = http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article659441.ece |quote=died three weeks after ingesting a toxic radioactive isotope, polonium-210|access-date =9 September 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517044504/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article659441.ece |archive-date=17 May 2008 | location=London}} Litvinenko's funeral took place on 7 December at the London Central Mosque, after which his body was buried at Highgate Cemetery in North London.{{cite news

| title = 'Solemn' burial for murdered spy

| work = BBC News

| date = 7 December 2006

| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6216202.stm

| access-date = 26 August 2008

| archive-date = 14 December 2006

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061214065315/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6216202.stm

| url-status = live

}}

In his last statement he said about Putin:

{{blockquote|…this may be the time to say one or two things to the person responsible for my present condition. 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. You have shown yourself to have no respect for life, liberty or any civilised value. You have shown yourself to be unworthy of your office, to be unworthy of the trust of civilised men and women. You may succeed in silencing one man but the howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Mr Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life. May God forgive you for what you have done, not only to me but to beloved Russia and its people.{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6180262.stm | work=BBC News | title=In full: Litvinenko statement | date=24 November 2006 | access-date=21 November 2010 | archive-date=11 December 2006 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061211144626/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6180262.stm | url-status=live }}}}

Greater London's Metropolitan Police Service Terrorism Unit has been investigating the poisoning and death. The head of the Counter-Terrorism Unit, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, stated the police "will trace possible witnesses, examine Mr. Litvinenko's movements at relevant times, including when he first became ill and identify people he may have met. There will also be an extensive examination of CCTV footage."{{cite web

|title = Police investigation into the death of Alexander Litvinenko

|publisher = Metropolitan Police Service

|date = 24 November 2006

|url = http://cms.met.police.uk/news/major_operational_announcements/police_investigation_into_the_death_of_alexander_litvinenko

|access-date = 27 November 2006

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090813033634/http://cms.met.police.uk/news/major_operational_announcements/police_investigation_into_the_death_of_alexander_litvinenko

|archive-date = 13 August 2009

|url-status = dead

|df = dmy-all

}}

The United Kingdom Government COBRA committee met to discuss the investigation.{{cite news

|last = Brown

|first = Colin and Castle, Stephen

|title = Cobra meets over fears about assassination squad

|work = The Independent

|date = 24 November 2006

|url = http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2013335.ece

|access-date = 27 November 2006

|location = London

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070930200119/http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2013335.ece

|archive-date = 30 September 2007

|df = dmy-all

}} Richard Kolko from the United States FBI stated "when requested by other nations, we provide assistance" – referring to the FBI now joining the investigation for their expertise on radioactive weapons.{{cite news

| title = FBI joins in Russian spy death probe

| work = The Sydney Morning Herald

| date = 1 December 2006

| url = http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/fbi-joins-in-russian-spy-death-probe/2006/12/01/1164777758528.html

| access-date = 1 December 2006

| archive-date = 11 November 2007

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071111014334/http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/fbi-joins-in-russian-spy-death-probe/2006/12/01/1164777758528.html

| url-status = live

}}{{cite news

|last = Quinn

|first = Jennifer

|title = FBI Joins Investigation of Poisoned Spy

|agency = Associated Press

|date = 30 November 2006

|df = dmy-all

}} The Metropolitan Police announced on 6 December 2006 that it was treating Litvinenko's death as murder. Interpol also joined the investigation, providing "speedy exchange of information" between British, Russian and German police.

When it became clear that Litvinenko had been poisoned by a radioactive substance, a team of scientists were assembled to investigate how far the contamination had spread; traces of polonium-210 were subsequently found at more than 40 locations in and out of London.{{cite news |title=Who else was poisoned by polonium? |work=The Guardian |date=5 June 2007 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/story/0,,2095599,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=18 |access-date=5 June 2006 |location=London |first=Steve |last=Boggan |archive-date=19 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230819194541/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/jun/05/russia.science |url-status=live }} Detectives discovered three distinct polonium trails at three different dates, which according to the investigation suggests Andrey Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun made two failed attempts to administer polonium to Litvinenko before the final and successful one. The first attempt took place on 16 October 2006, when Lugovoy and Kovtun met Litvinenko in London;{{cite web |title =Litvinenko postmortem 'most dangerous ever in western world' |date =28 January 2015 |last1=Harding |first1=Luke |last2=Addley |first2=Esther |work=The Guardian |url =https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/28/litvinenko-postmortem-dangerous-inquiry-death |archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20210508085135/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/28/litvinenko-postmortem-dangerous-inquiry-death |archive-date =8 May 2021 |access-date =26 March 2022 }} they tried to poison him at an office of Erinys International, a security company, at 25 Grosvenor Street, in Mayfair, and later had lunch with him at the Itsu sushi restaurant in Piccadilly Circus.{{cite news |last1=Harding |first1=Luke |title=Litvinenko inquiry told of mysterious break-in at Mayfair office |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/09/litvinenko-inquiry-told-of-mysterious-break-in-at-mayfair-office |access-date=19 January 2023 |work=the Guardian |date=9 February 2015 |language=en |archive-date=19 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119170646/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/09/litvinenko-inquiry-told-of-mysterious-break-in-at-mayfair-office |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=Litvinenko inquiry: Key findings |work=BBC News |date=21 January 2016 |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-35371344 |archivedate=14 March 2022 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20220314002304/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-35371344 |accessdate=9 April 2022}} On that occasion the amount of polonium ingested by Litvinenko was far lower than the lethal amount and he survived it, though he had indeed reportedly felt ill.{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/06/alexander-litvinenko-and-the-most-radioactive-towel-in-history|title=Alexander Litvinenko and the most radioactive towel in history|last=Harding|first=Luke|date=6 March 2016|newspaper=The Guardian|language=en-GB|issn=0261-3077|access-date=12 March 2016|archive-date=19 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230819194541/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/06/alexander-litvinenko-and-the-most-radioactive-towel-in-history|url-status=live}} Polonium trails left by the pair also started on 16 October; the Erinys boardroom, the Itsu restaurant, and their hotel rooms, at 65-73 Shaftesbury Avenue, were found to be contaminated.

Apparently, Lugovoy and Kovtun did not fully realize they were handling a radioactive poison. Journalist Luke Harding described their behaviour as "idiotic, verging on suicidal"; while handling a leaky container, they stored it in their hotel rooms, used ordinary towels to clean up leaks, and eventually disposed of the poison in the bathroom sink. On 17 October, perhaps realizing they contaminated their rooms, they prematurely checked out, moved to another hotel, and left London the next day.

Another unsuccessful assassination attempt took place on 25 October, when Lugovoy flew to London again. He left radioactive traces again in his hotel, Sheraton Park Lane, 58 Grosvenor Street, prior to meeting Litvinenko at the hotel's tearoom, but did not administer the poison, perhaps fearing detection by security cameras in the room.{{cite news |title=Timeline: Former Russian spy case |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6179074.stm |access-date=19 January 2023 |work=BBC NEWS |date=5 December 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061206152719/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6179074.stm |archive-date=6 December 2006}}{{cite news |title=Polonium trail led British investigators to Lugovoy |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-russia-polonium-idUSL2239639520070522 |access-date=19 January 2023 |work=Reuters |date=22 May 2007 |language=en |archive-date=19 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119175955/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-russia-polonium-idUSL2239639520070522 |url-status=live }} He again disposed of the poison via his room's bathroom sink, and left London.

The third attempt to poison Litvinenko took place at around 5 pm of 1 November in the Millennium Hotel in Grosvenor Square. The bus he travelled in to the hotel had no signs of radioactivity – but large amounts had been detected at the hotel.{{cite news

| title =Litvinenko 'poisoned at hotel'

| publisher =News24

| date = 11 December 2006

| url = http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,9294,2-10-1462_2043107,00.html

| access-date =19 December 2006 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061222152746/http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0%2C9294%2C2-10-1462_2043107%2C00.html| archive-date=22 December 2006}} Polonium was subsequently found in a fourth-floor room and in a cup in the Pine Bar at the hotel.{{cite news

|title = Detectives focus on hotel as site of Litvinenko poisoning

|work = The Scotsman

|date = 9 December 2006

|url = http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1830482006

|access-date = 19 December 2006

|location = Edinburgh

|archive-date = 4 January 2007

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070104030947/http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1830482006

|url-status = live

}} After the Millennium bar, Litvinenko stopped at the office of Boris Berezovsky. He used a fax machine, where radioactive contamination was found later. At 6 pm, Akhmed Zakayev picked Litvinenko up and brought him home to Muswell Hill. The amount of radioactivity left by Litvinenko in the car was so significant that the car was rendered unusable. Everything that he touched at home during the next three days was contaminated. His family was unable to return to the house in safety even six months later. His wife tested positive for ingesting polonium, but did not leave a secondary trail behind her. This suggested that anyone who left a trail could not have picked up the polonium from Litvinenko (possibly, including Lugovoy and Kovtun). The patterns and levels of radioactivity the assassins left behind suggested that Litvinenko ingested polonium, whereas Lugovoy and Kovtun handled it directly. The human body dilutes polonium before excreting it in sweat, which results in a reduced radioactivity level. There were also traces of Po-210 found at the Hey Jo/Abracadabra bar, Dar Marrakesh restaurant, and Lambeth-Mercedes taxis.{{cite news | title = The polonium trail: Key locations | publisher = BBC | date = 17 August 2007 | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/6267373.stm | access-date = 12 September 2011 | archive-date = 7 January 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090107022915/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/6267373.stm | url-status = live }}

Besides Litvinenko, only two people left polonium trails: Lugovoy and Kovtun, who were school friends and worked previously for Russian intelligence in the KGB and the GRU, respectively. They left more significant traces of polonium than Litvinenko, indicating that they handled the radioactive material directly, and did not ingest it.

Lugovoy and Kovtun met Litvinenko in the Millennium hotel bar twice, on 1 November (when the poisoning took place), and earlier, on 16 October. Trails left by Lugovoy and Kovtun also started on that day. It was assumed that their first meeting with Litvinenko was either a rehearsal of the future poisoning, or an unsuccessful attempt at the poisoning.

Traces left by Lugovoy were also found in the office of Berezovsky that he visited on 31 October, a day before his second meeting with Litvinenko. Traces left by Kovtun were found in Hamburg, Germany. He left them on his way to London on 28 October. The traces were found in passenger jets{{cite web

| last = Cowell

| first = Alan

| title = Planes tested for radioactivity in link to death of the former Russian spy

|work=New York Times

| date = 29 November 2006

| url = http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/29/news/russia.php

| access-date =30 November 2006 }}{{cite news

| title = Radiation on airliners may be from poisoned spy

| publisher = CNN

| date = 29 November 2006

| url = http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/11/29/uk.spy.ba.ap/index.html

| access-date =30 November 2006 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061129210428/http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/11/29/uk.spy.ba.ap/index.html| archive-date = 29 November 2006}} BA875 and BA873 from Moscow to Heathrow on 25 and 31 October, as well as flights BA872 and BA874 from Heathrow Airport to Moscow on 28 October and 3 November.{{cite news

|title = BA jets grounded after radiation discovered at Heathrow

|work = The Times

|date = 29 November 2006

|url = http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2478451,00.html

|access-date = 29 November 2006

|location = London

|first1 = Sam

|last1 = Knight

|archive-date = 19 August 2023

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230819194543/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/

|url-status = dead

}}{{cite news

|last = Oliver

|first = Mark

|title = Radiation found at 12 sites in Litvinenko case

|work = The Guardian

|date = 30 November 2006

|url = http://politics.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329649159-110481,00.html

|archive-url = https://archive.today/20130420071208/http://politics.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329649159-110481,00.html

|url-status = dead

|archive-date = 20 April 2013

|access-date = 30 November 2006

|location = London

}}

Andrey Lugovoy has said he flew from London to Moscow on a 3 November flight. He stated he arrived in London on 31 October to attend the football match between Arsenal and CSKA Moscow on 1 November.{{cite news

|title = Victim's tea companion denies any involvement

|work = The Times

|date = 24 November 2006

|url = http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2469663,00.html

|access-date = 29 November 2006

|location = London

|first1 = Tony

|last1 = Halpin

|archive-date = 19 August 2023

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230819194543/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/

|url-status = dead

}}

British Airways later published a list of 221 flights of the contaminated aircraft, involving around 33,000 passengers, and advised those potentially affected to contact the UK Department of Health for help. On 5 December, they issued an email to all of their customers, informing them that the aircraft had all been declared safe by the UK's Health Protection Agency and would be re-entering service.{{citation needed|date=February 2024}}

British authorities investigated the death and it was reported on 1 December that scientists at the Atomic Weapons Establishment had traced the source of the polonium to a nuclear power plant in Russia. On 3 December, reports stated that Britain had demanded the right to speak to at least five Russians implicated in Litvinenko's death, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov asserted that Moscow was willing to answer "concrete questions".{{cite news

|first = Brian

|last = Brady

|title = Spy death: 5 Russians wanted

|work = The Scotsman

|date = 3 December 2006

|url = http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=1792032006

|access-date = 3 December 2006

|location = Edinburgh

|archive-date = 8 December 2006

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061208164639/http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=1792032006

|url-status = live

}} Russian Prosecutor-General Yuri Chaika said on Tuesday 5 December that any Russian citizen who may be charged in the poisoning will be tried in Russia, not Britain.{{cite news

| title = Russia says no extradition for Litvinenko suspects

| work = Reuters

| date = 5 December 2006

| url = https://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL0562631020061205

| access-date = 5 December 2006

| archive-date = 8 March 2021

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210308170257/https://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSL0562631020061205

| url-status = live

}} Moreover, Chaika stated that UK detectives may ask questions to Russian citizens only in the presence of Russian prosecutors.{{cite web

| first = Neil

| last = Buckley

| title = Russians set limits in helping polonium death case

| work = Financial Times

| date = 5 December 2006

| url = http://www.ft.com/cms/s/28d68a18-848e-11db-87e0-0000779e2340.html

| access-date = 5 December 2006

| archive-date = 6 December 2006

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061206204343/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/28d68a18-848e-11db-87e0-0000779e2340.html

| url-status = live

}}

On 28 May 2007, the British Foreign Office submitted a formal request to the Russian Government for the extradition of Andrey Lugovoy to the UK to face criminal charges relating to Litvinenko's murder.

The Russian General Prosecutor's Office declined to extradite Lugovoy, citing that extradition of citizens is not allowed under the Russian constitution (Article 61 of the Constitution of Russia).{{cite web |url=http://www.constitution.ru/en/10003000-03.htm |title=Chapter 2. Rights and Freedoms of Man And Citizen | The Constitution of the Russian Federation |publisher=Constitution.ru |access-date=21 November 2010 |archive-date=10 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190310043417/http://www.constitution.ru/en/10003000-03.htm |url-status=live }}{{Cite news|last=Lowe|first=Christian|title=UPDATE 5-Russia rejects UK's Litvinenko extradition request|language=en-US|work=U.S.|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSL0536765420070705?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0|access-date=15 February 2021|archive-date=9 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309031612/https://www.reuters.com/article/companyNewsAndPR/idUSL0536765420070705?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0|url-status=live}}{{cite news| url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/letters/article2099940.ece |work=The Times | location=London | title=Russia has the right to refuse extradition | date=19 July 2007 | access-date=22 May 2010}}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}} Russian authorities later said that Britain has not handed over any evidence against Lugovoy.{{Cite news|last=SPIEGEL|first=DER|title=G-8 Interview with Vladimir Putin: 'I am a True Democrat'|url=https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/g-8-interview-with-vladimir-putin-i-am-a-true-democrat-a-486345.html|access-date=15 February 2021|newspaper=Der Spiegel|date=4 June 2007|language=en|archive-date=3 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210303031702/https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/g-8-interview-with-vladimir-putin-i-am-a-true-democrat-a-486345.html|url-status=live}} Professor Daniel Tarschys, former Secretary General of the Council of Europe, commented{{cite web

| title = Article opens door to extradition of Lugovoi

| url = http://www.ft.com/cms/s/7a2c916a-3590-11dc-bb16-0000779fd2ac.html

| author = Prof Daniel Tarschys

| date = 19 July 2007

| work = Financial Times

| access-date = 4 August 2007

| archive-date = 6 August 2007

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070806091403/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/7a2c916a-3590-11dc-bb16-0000779fd2ac.html

| url-status = live

}} that the Russian Constitution actually "opens the door" for the extradition, and Russia ratified three international treaties on extradition (on 10 December 1999); namely, the European Convention on Extradition{{cite web

| title = European Convention on Extradition

| url = http://conventions.coe.int/treaty/en/Treaties/Html/024.htm

| publisher = Council of Europe, Paris

| date = 13 December 1957

| access-date = 4 August 2007

| archive-date = 2 October 2000

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20001002095327/http://conventions.coe.int/treaty/en/Treaties/Html/024.htm

| url-status = live

}} and two Additional Protocols{{cite web

| title = Additional Protocol to the European Convention on Extradition

| url = http://conventions.coe.int/treaty/en/Treaties/Html/086.htm

| publisher = Council of Europe, Strasbourg

| date = 15 October 1975

| access-date = 4 August 2007

| archive-date = 17 August 2007

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070817014524/http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/treaties/html/086.htm

| url-status = live

}}{{cite web

| title = Second Additional Protocol to the European Convention on Extradition

| url = http://conventions.coe.int/treaty/en/Treaties/Html/098.htm

| publisher = Council of Europe, Strasbourg

| date = 17 March 1978

| access-date = 4 August 2007

| archive-date = 10 February 2001

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20010210022001/http://conventions.coe.int/treaty/en/Treaties/Html/098.htm

| url-status = live

}}{{cite web

| title = Archives 1999 on changes in Treaties

| url = http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/Archives/News/News_1999.htm

| publisher = Council of Europe, Strasbourg

| year = 1978

| access-date = 4 August 2007

| archive-date = 31 August 2000

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20000831013600/http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/EN/Archives/News/News_1999.htm

| url-status = live

}} to it.

Yury Fedotov, Ambassador of the Russian Federation, pointed out that when the Russian Federation ratified the European Convention on Extradition it entered a declaration{{cite web

| title = European Convention on Extradition. List of the declarations made by: Russia

| url = http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/Commun/ListeDeclarations.asp?CL=ENG&CM=5&CN=999&CV=1&MA=15&PO=RUS&VL=1

| publisher = Council of Europe, Strasbourg

| year = 1999

| access-date = 15 November 2008

| archive-date = 15 August 2009

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090815014954/http://conventions.coe.int/Treaty/Commun/ListeDeclarations.asp?CL=ENG&CM=5&CN=999&CV=1&MA=15&PO=RUS&VL=1

| url-status = dead

}} concerning Article 6 in these terms: "The Russian Federation declares that in accordance with Article 61 (part 1) of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, a citizen of the Russian Federation may not be extradited to another state."{{Cite web|title=The Times & The Sunday Times|url=https://www.thetimes.com/|access-date=15 February 2021|website=The Times|language=en|archive-date=30 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190330201402/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/|url-status=live}}

On 7 July 2008, a British security source told the BBC's Newsnight programme: "We very strongly believe the Litvinenko case to have had some state involvement. There are very strong indications."[https://web.archive.org/web/20110515212705/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/russia-backed-dissidents-poisoning-862145.html Russia 'backed dissident's poisoning'] By Sadie Gray The Independent 8 July 2008. The British government claimed that no intelligence or security officials were authorised to comment on the case.{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2284732/Britain-seeks-to-defuse-row-with-Russia-over-Alexander-Litvinenko-murder.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2284732/Britain-seeks-to-defuse-row-with-Russia-over-Alexander-Litvinenko-murder.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Britain seeks to defuse row with Russia over Alexander Litvinenko murder|first=Jon|last=Swaine|date=11 July 2008|work=Telegraph.co.uk}}{{cbignore}}{{cite news|url=http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/08d5ffa8-4ed3-11dd-ba7c-000077b07658.html|title=UK seeks to defuse Russian ire over killing|work=Financial Times|date=11 July 2008|access-date=9 September 2011|archive-date=19 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230819194542/https://www.ft.com/content/08d5ffa8-4ed3-11dd-ba7c-000077b07658|url-status=live}}

In January 2016, a UK public inquiry, headed by Sir Robert Owen, found that Andrey Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun were responsible for the poisoning of Litvinenko. The inquiry also found that there was a strong probability that Lugovoy and Kovtun were acting under the direction of the FSB, and that their actions were probably approved by both Nikolai Patrushev, Director of the FSB, and President Vladimir Putin.{{cite web|url=https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/report|publisher=The Litvinenko Inquiry|title=Report|access-date=21 January 2016|archive-date=10 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170210073404/https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/report|url-status=live}}

In September 2021, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) found that Russia was responsible for Litvinenko's killing (a violation of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Russia has been a party since 1998).{{Cite news|date=21 September 2021|title=Russia responsible for Litvinenko killing - European court|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-58637572|access-date=21 September 2021|archive-date=21 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210921090054/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-58637572|url-status=live}}{{cite web |title=Treaty list for a specific State: Russian Federation |url=https://www.coe.int/en/web/conventions/full-list/-/conventions/rms/0900001680063765?module=treaties-full-list-signature&CodePays=RUS |publisher=Council of Europe |access-date=23 September 2021 |archive-date=23 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423120434/https://www.coe.int/en/web/conventions/full-list/-/conventions/rms/0900001680063765?module=treaties-full-list-signature&CodePays=RUS |url-status=live }} The Court's findings were consistent with those of the UK inquiry; it ruled that it was "beyond reasonable doubt that the assassination had been carried out by" Andrey Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun; that there was "prima facie evidence of state involvement" and that there was a "strong" case that the two assassins were acting as agents of the Russian State; and that Russia had failed to investigate the murder or to identify and punish those responsible.{{Cite web|date=21 September 2021|title=Judgment Carter v. Russia - Russia was responsible for assassination of Aleksandr Litvinenko in the UK|url=http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng-press?i=003-7125276-9653243|access-date=21 September 2021|publisher=European Court of Human Rights|archive-date=21 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210921164509/https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng-press?i=003-7125276-9653243|url-status=live}}{{cite news |last1=Siddique |first1=Haroon |last2=Roth |first2=Andrew |date=21 September 2021 |title=Russia responsible for Alexander Litvinenko death, European court rules |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/21/russia-responsible-for-alexander-litvinenko-death-european-court-rules |access-date=21 September 2021 |archive-date=24 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220224013943/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/21/russia-responsible-for-alexander-litvinenko-death-european-court-rules |url-status=live }} The Court drew an adverse inference from Russia's refusal to disclose any documents from its investigation. The Court noted that the "planned and complex operation involving the procurement of a rare deadly poison, the travel arrangements for the pair, and repeated and sustained attempts to administer the poison indicated that Mr Litvinenko had been the target of the operation."

The Court ruled that Russia was to pay Litvinenko's widow, the applicant in the case, €100,000 in respect of non-pecuniary damage and €22,500 in respect of costs and expenses. It rejected the applicant's claim for punitive damages in the amount of €3.5 million, in keeping with its established practice.{{cite web |title=Russia was responsible for assassination of Aleksandr Litvinenko in the UK |url=https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/app/conversion/pdf/?library=ECHR&id=003-7125276-9653243&filename=Judgment%20Carter%20v.%20Russia%20-%20Russia%20was%20responsible%20for%20assassination%20of%20Aleksandr%20Litvinenko%20in%20the%20UK.pdf |website=HUDOC |access-date=19 January 2023 |date=2021-09-21 |archive-date=19 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119180943/https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/app/conversion/pdf/?library=ECHR&id=003-7125276-9653243&filename=Judgment%20Carter%20v.%20Russia%20-%20Russia%20was%20responsible%20for%20assassination%20of%20Aleksandr%20Litvinenko%20in%20the%20UK.pdf |url-status=live }}

In January 2007, the Polish newspaper Dziennik revealed that a target with a photo of Litvinenko on it was used for shooting practice by the Vityaz Training Centre in Balashikha in October 2002.{{Cite web|title=Dziennik.pl - wiadomości z kraju i ze świata - film, muzyka, kultura, gospodarka, auto - Dziennik|url=https://www.dziennik.pl/|access-date=15 February 2021|website=www.dziennik.pl|language=pl|archive-date=15 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210215031543/https://www.dziennik.pl/|url-status=live}} The centre was not affiliated with the government and trained bodyguards, debt collectors and private security forces, although in November 2006 the centre was used by the Vityaz special forces (spetsnaz) unit for a qualification examination due to their own centre being under renovation. The targets were photographed when the chairman of the Federation Council of Russia, Sergei Mironov, came for a visit on 7 November 2006.{{cite news|url=http://www.kommersant.com/p738293/r_530/Litvinenko_Shooting_Gallery/ |title=Litvinenko Shooting Gallery |last=Voronov |first=Alexander |author2=Chistyakova, Marina |author3=Barakhova, Alla |date=31 January 2007 |publisher=Kommersant |access-date=6 April 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101223161814/http://www.kommersant.com/p738293/r_530/Litvinenko_Shooting_Gallery |archive-date=23 December 2010 }} ( at WebCite)

On 2 March 2007, Paul Joyal, a former director of security for the U.S. Senate intelligence committee, who the previous weekend alleged on national television that the Kremlin was involved in the poisoning of Litvinenko, was shot near his Maryland home. An FBI spokesman said the agency was "assisting" the police investigation into the shooting. Police would not confirm details of the shooting or of the condition of Joyal. A person familiar with the case said he was in critical condition in hospital. It was reported that while there were no indications that the shooting was linked to the Litvinenko case, it is unusual for the FBI to get involved in a local shooting incident. A person familiar with the situation said NBC had hired bodyguards for some of the journalists involved in the program.{{Cite news|title=Expert in Litvinenko death is shot|url=https://www.ft.com/content/7af97578-c924-11db-9f7b-000b5df10621|access-date=15 February 2021|work=Financial Times|archive-date=8 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308043002/https://www.ft.com/content/7af97578-c924-11db-9f7b-000b5df10621|url-status=live}}

Radiation scientist Matthew Puncher, working with colleagues, calculated the amount of polonium inside Litvinenko's body following his death.{{cite web|last1=Imogen Robinson|title=Top scientist who discovered Litvinenko poison 'stabbed himself to death with two knives' after trip to Russia|url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/top-scientist-who-discovered-litvinenko-9325403|publisher=Mirror Online|access-date=15 March 2018|date=November 2016|archive-date=16 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180316084803/https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/top-scientist-who-discovered-litvinenko-9325403|url-status=live}} In 2015 and 2016, he made work visits to Russia. He returned from Russia "changed completely"{{mdash}}{{tsp}}deeply depressed and obsessed about his error in a software program. In May 2016, he was found dead in his home with multiple extensive wounds from two kitchen knives. There was no evidence of a disturbance or a struggle. Home Office pathologist Dr Nicholas Hunt could not entirely exclude that someone else had been involved but declared wounds were self-inflicted and a cause of death as haemorrhaging. Suicide by multiple stab wounds is extremely rare{{cite web|title=The Man Who Knew Too Much|url=https://www.buzzfeed.com/janebradley/scientist-who-helped-connect-litvinenkos-murder-to-the|publisher=BuzzFeed News|access-date=15 March 2018|date=June 2017|archive-date=15 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180315201449/https://www.buzzfeed.com/janebradley/scientist-who-helped-connect-litvinenkos-murder-to-the|url-status=live}}{{mdash}}{{tsp}}one study counts 8 cases of multiple-site wounds for 513,182 suicides.{{cite journal|last1=Byard|first1=RW|last2=Klitte|first2=A|last3=Gilbert|first3=JD|last4=James|first4=RA|title=Clinicopathologic features of fatal self-inflicted incised and stab wounds: a 20-year study.|journal=The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology|volume=23|issue=1|pages=15–8|date=March 2002|pmid=11953487|doi=10.1097/00000433-200203000-00003|s2cid=23260927}}

Sergei Skripal is a former Russian military intelligence officer who acted as a double agent for the UK's intelligence services during the 1990s and early 2000s. In December 2004, he was arrested by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) and later tried, convicted of high treason, and sentenced to 13 years in prison. He settled in the UK in 2010 following the Illegals Program spy swap. On 4 March 2018, he and his daughter Yulia, who was visiting him from Moscow, were poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent. By 15 March 2018, they were in a critical condition at Salisbury District Hospital. The poisoning is being investigated as an attempted murder. He holds both Russian and British citizenship. On 21 March 2018 Russian ambassador to the UK Alexander Yakovenko said that Sergei Skripal is also a Russian citizen. On 29 March, Yulia was reported to be out of critical condition, conscious and talking. A week later, on 6 April, Skripal was said to no longer be in a critical state. He was discharged on 18 May.

Detective sergeant Nick Bailey, who was contaminated by the agent used in the assassination attempt against Skripal, suffered under severe health and financial repercussions as a consequence. Dawn Sturgess and her partner, Charlie Rowley, were also accidentally exposed to the Novichok poison, which led to Dawn Sturgess' death.{{Cite news|date=22 November 2018|title=Skripal poisoning: Policeman's family 'lost everything' because of Novichok|language=en-GB|work=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-46290989|access-date=15 February 2021|archive-date=11 December 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201211140536/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-46290989|url-status=live}}

A freelance killer would probably not be able to manufacture polonium from commercially available products in the amounts used for Litvinenko's poisoning, because macroscopic amounts of polonium can only be produced in state-regulated nuclear reactors,{{cite web

| last = Felgenhauer

| first = Pavel

| title = Russian political intrigue means Putin could not have been in the dark about Litvinenko attack

| publisher = Jamestown Foundation

| date = 29 November 2006

| url = http://jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2371683

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070930184230/http://jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2371683

| archive-date = 30 September 2007

| access-date =3 December 2006 }} even though one might extract polonium from publicly available products, such as antistatic fans.{{cite news

| title = Polonium, $22.50 Plus Tax

| newspaper = The New York Times

| date = 3 December 2006

| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/weekinreview/03broad.html?pagewanted=2&_r=3

| access-date = 21 May 2016

| last1 = Broad

| first1 = William J.

| archive-date = 28 November 2018

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20181128051108/https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/03/weekinreview/03broad.html?pagewanted=2&_r=3

| url-status = live

}}

As production of polonium-210 was discontinued in most countries in late 2000s, all of the world's legal polonium-210 (²¹⁰Po) production occurs in Russia in RBMK reactors.[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/06/AR2007010601491.html Poisoning Of Ex-Agent Sets Off Alarm Bells. Nuclear Regulators Fear Wider Attempt] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170214003612/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/06/AR2007010601491.html |date=14 February 2017 }} By Peter Finn, Washington Post, Sunday, 7 January 2007 A Moscow Times article claimed Russia produces about 85 grams (450,000 Ci) annually,{{Cite web |last=Finn |first=Peter |date=2007-01-11 |title=Most Polonium Made Near the Volga River |url=https://www.themoscowtimes.com/archive/most-polonium-made-near-the-volga-river |access-date=2022-04-14 |website=The Moscow Times |language=en |archive-date=24 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220324104057/https://www.themoscowtimes.com/archive/most-polonium-made-near-the-volga-river |url-status=live }} but this was disputed by Russian nuclear physicist Radiy Ilkaev, who stated the Avangard plant produces only 9.6 grams per year.{{cite news |title=Когда полоний призвали на службу |url=https://rg.ru/2006/12/06/ilkaev.html |access-date=7 April 2022 |agency=Rossiyskaya Gazeta |archive-date=7 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407211611/https://rg.ru/2006/12/06/ilkaev.html |url-status=live }}

The production of polonium starts from bombardment of bismuth (²⁰⁹Bi) with neutrons at the Mayak nuclear reactors in Ozersk, near the city of Chelyabinsk in Russia. The product is then transferred to the Avangard Electromechanical Plant in the closed city of Sarov.{{cite web|url=http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/news/2008/intell-080402-rianovosti01.htm|title=U.S. lawmakers urge Russia to assist Britain in Litvinenko case|first=John|last=Pike|access-date=1 May 2008|archive-date=14 May 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080514000110/http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/news/2008/intell-080402-rianovosti01.htm|url-status=live}}[http://www.ransac.org/Projects/WMD%20Expertise%20Redirection%20Project/Nonproliferation%20Centers%20Reports%20and%20Projects/avangard_paper5.html Conversion of the radioisotope production at the Avangard plant] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050310091050/http://www.ransac.org/Projects/WMD%20Expertise%20Redirection%20Project/Nonproliferation%20Centers%20Reports%20and%20Projects/avangard_paper5.html |date=10 March 2005 }} by Partnership for global security{{cite news

|last = Gardham

|first = Duncan and Steele, John

|title = Spy's contact and wife also poisoned

|work = Daily Telegraph

|date = 2 December 2006

|url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/12/02/npoison02.xml

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061206174332/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2006%2F12%2F02%2Fnpoison02.xml

|url-status = dead

|archive-date = 6 December 2006

|access-date = 2 December 2006

|location = London

}} This does not exclude the possibility that the polonium that killed Litvinenko was imported by a licensed commercial distributor, but no one—including the Russian government—has proposed that this is likely, particularly in regard to the radiation detected on the British Airways passenger jets travelling between Moscow and London.{{cite book |last=Harding |first=Luke |title=A Very Expensive Poison: The Definitive Story of the Murder of Litvinenko and Russia's War with the West |publisher=Guardian Faber Publishing |year=2016 |isbn=978-1783350933 |language=en |author-link=Luke Harding}}

Polonium-210 has a half-life of 138 days and decays to the stable daughter isotope of lead, ²⁰⁶Pb. Therefore, the source is reduced to about one sixteenth of its original radioactivity about 18 months after production. By measuring the proportion of polonium and lead in a sample, one can establish the production date of polonium. The analysis of impurities in the polonium (a kind of "fingerprint") allows identification of the place of production.{{cite news

|last = Sample

|first = Ian

|title = Explainer: Polonium 210

|work = The Guardian

|date = 25 November 2006

|url = https://www.theguardian.com/russia/article/0,,1956792,00.html

|access-date = 30 November 2006

|location = London

|archive-date = 19 August 2023

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230819195044/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/nov/25/russia.world2

|url-status = live

}} The isotope used in killing of Litvinenko has been traced by a British theoretical physics professor Norman Dombey:{{cite web | url=https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/files/INQ020031x.pdf | title=Supplementary Report by Norman David Dombey | access-date=29 March 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160414173826/https://www.litvinenkoinquiry.org/files/INQ020031x.pdf | archive-date=14 April 2016 | url-status=dead | df=dmy-all }}

{{Blockquote|text=The Po-210 used to poison Mr Litvinenko was made at the Avangard facility in Sarov, Russia. One of the isotope-producing reactors at the Mayak facility in Ozersk, Russia, was used for the initial irradiation of bismuth. In my opinion, the Russian state or its agents were responsible for the poisoning. |author=Norman Dombey |source=Supplementary Report by Norman David Dombey }}

In addition, Dombey pointed out that Avangard delivers a metallic polonium, which must have been further processed into a solution as used in the Litvinenko assassination; involvement of an FSB poison laboratory was also likely.

Philip Walker, professor of physics at the University of Surrey said: "This seems to have been a substance carefully chosen for its ability to be hard to detect in a person who has ingested it."{{cite news

| title = What is polonium-210?

| work = BBC News

| date = 8 December 2006

| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6181688.stm

| access-date = 12 March 2007

| archive-date = 8 February 2007

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070208233253/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6181688.stm

| url-status = live

}} Oleg Gordievsky, the most senior KGB agent ever to defect to Britain, made a similar comment

that Litvinenko's assassination was carefully prepared and rehearsed by Russian secret services,{{cite web

| title = Смерть Литвиненко "была отрепетирована, как в Большом театре"

| publisher = svobodanews.ru

| date = 19 December 2006

| url = http://www.svobodanews.ru/Article/2006/12/19/20061219101636110.html

| access-date = 12 March 2007

| archive-date = 30 June 2008

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080630024623/http://www.svobodanews.ru/Article/2006/12/19/20061219101636110.html

| url-status = dead

}} English translation: {{cite web

| title = Litvinenko: Gordievsky Interview – II

| date = 19 December 2006

| url = http://halldor2.wordpress.com/2006/12/19/litvinenko-gordievsky-interview-ii/

| access-date = 15 March 2007

| archive-date = 14 August 2009

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090814003546/http://halldor2.wordpress.com/2006/12/19/litvinenko-gordievsky-interview-ii/

| url-status = live

}} but the poisoners were unaware that technology existed to detect traces left by polonium-210: "Did you know that polonium-210 leaves traces? I didn’t. And no one did. ...what they didn’t know was that this equipment, this technology exists in the West – they didn’t know that, and that was where they miscalculated."

Nick Priest, a nuclear scientist and expert on polonium who has worked at most of Russia's nuclear research facilities, says that although the execution of the plot was a "bout of stupidity", the choice of polonium was a "stroke of genius". He says: "the choice of poison was genius in that polonium, carried in a vial in water, can be carried in a pocket through airport screening devices without setting off any alarms", adding, "once administered, the polonium creates symptoms that don't suggest poison for days, allowing time for the perpetrator to make a getaway." Priest asserts that "whoever did it was probably not an expert in radiation protection, so they probably didn't realize how much contamination you can get just by opening the top (of the vial) and closing it again. With the right equipment, you can detect just one count per second."{{cite news | title = The sadistic poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

|publisher=CBC

|location=Canada

| date = 19 December 2006

| url = http://www.cbc.ca/news/reportsfromabroad/murray/20061219.html

| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070103223932/http://www.cbc.ca/news/reportsfromabroad/murray/20061219.html | archive-date=3 January 2007| access-date =28 March 2008}}

Filmmaker and friend of Litvinenko Andrei Nekrasov has suggested that the poison was "sadistically designed to trigger a slow, tortuous and spectacular demise."{{cite news

|title = 'Promise me you won't go back to Russia – or you will be the next'

|work = The Times

|date = 24 November 2006

|url = http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article648230.ece

|access-date = 12 March 2007

|location = London

|first = Andrei

|last = Nekrasov

|archive-date = 8 February 2007

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070208103617/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article648230.ece

|url-status = dead

}} Expert on Russia Paul Joyal suggested that "A message has been communicated to anyone who wants to speak out against the Kremlin.... If you do, no matter who you are, where you are, we will find you, and we will silence you, in the most horrible way possible."{{cite web

| title = Who killed Alexander Litvinenko?

| publisher = NBC News

| date = 25 February 2007

| url = https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna17332541

| access-date = 12 March 2007

| archive-date = 8 May 2020

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200508020842/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/17332541

| url-status = live

}}

The poisoning of Litvinenko immediately led to the suspicion that he was killed by Russian secret services.{{cite news

|title = Leading Russian critic of Putin's regime is poisoned in London

|work = The Daily Telegraph

|date = 20 November 2006

|url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/11/19/npoison19.xml

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070123070433/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2006%2F11%2F19%2Fnpoison19.xml

|url-status = dead

|archive-date = 23 January 2007

|access-date = 6 November 2007

|first1 = Andrew

|last1 = Alderson

|first2 = James

|last2 = Glover

}}

Viktor Ilyukhin, a deputy chairman of the Russian Parliament's security committee for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, said that he "can’t exclude that possibility".{{citation needed|date=December 2019}} He apparently referred to a recent Russian counter-terrorism law that gives the President the right to order such actions.{{cite web

| title = Федеральный закон Российской Федерации от 6 марта 2006 г. N 35-ФЗ О противодействии терроризму

| publisher = Government of Russia

| date = 20 November 2006

| url = http://www.rg.ru/2006/03/10/borba-terrorizm.html

| access-date = 24 November 2006

| language = ru

| archive-date = 31 December 2006

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061231131755/http://www.rg.ru/2006/03/10/borba-terrorizm.html

| url-status = live

}}{{cite news

| last = Eke

| first = Steven

| title = Russia law on killing 'extremists' abroad

| work = BBC News

| date = 27 November 2006

| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6188658.stm

| access-date = 27 November 2006

| archive-date = 3 March 2007

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070303225731/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6188658.stm

| url-status = live

}}

An investigator of the Russian apartment bombings, Mikhail Trepashkin, wrote in a letter from prison that an FSB team had organised in 2002 to kill Litvinenko. He also reported FSB plans to kill relatives of Litvinenko in Moscow in 2002, although these have not been carried out.{{cite web

|script-title = ru:М. Трепашкин: "Создана очень серьезная группа"

|publisher = Chechen Press State News Agency

|date = 1 December 2006

|url = http://www.chechenpress.info/events/2006/12/01/03.shtml

|access-date = 1 December 2006

|language = ru

|archive-date = 19 December 2007

|archive-url = https://archive.today/20071219130424/http://www.chechenpress.info/events/2006/12/01/03.shtml

|url-status = usurped

}}{{cite web

|script-title=ru:Березовский и УРПО / дело Литвиненко

|work=Агентура.Ру

|date=27 November 2006 |url=http://www.agentura.ru/timeline/1998/urpo/

|access-date=30 November 2006 |language=ru

|url-status=dead

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061208212745/http://www.agentura.ru/timeline/1998/urpo/

|archive-date=8 December 2006 }} State Duma member Sergei Abeltsev commented on 24 November 2006: "The deserved punishment reached the traitor. I am confident that this terrible death will be a serious warning to traitors of all colors, wherever they are located: In Russia, they do not pardon treachery. I would recommend citizen Berezovsky to avoid any food at the commemoration for his accomplice Litvinenko."

Many publications in Russian media suggested that the death of Litvinenko was connected to Boris Berezovsky.{{cite web

|last = Weaver

|first = John

|title = Mafia Hit On The Media

|publisher = Atlantic Free Press

|date = 24 November 2006

|url = http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/262/

|access-date = 26 November 2006

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071016222702/http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/262/

|archive-date = 16 October 2007

|df = dmy-all

}}{{cite web

| last = Alexeev

| first = Petr

| title = Politkovskaya, Litvinenko, who is next?

| publisher = Electorat. Info

| date = 24 November 2006

| url = http://www.electorat.info/oligarx/22196-1/

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070224230746/http://www.electorat.info/oligarx/22196-1/

| archive-date = 24 February 2007

| access-date =26 November 2006 |language=ru}}

Shortly after the incident, the Russian government dismissed allegations of FSB involvement in the assassination using the argument that Litvinenko was "not important" and "mentally unstable", implying that the government had no interest in killing such an insignificant figure. However, Eduard Limonov observed that the same argument was raised after the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya, and described Litvinenko's death as a "very public execution".{{Cite web|url=http://exile.ru/print.php?ARTICLE_ID=8393&IBLOCK_ID=35|title=Print article|website=exile.ru|access-date=30 March 2016|archive-date=13 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160413183832/http://exile.ru/print.php?ARTICLE_ID=8393&IBLOCK_ID=35|url-status=live}}

An explanation put forward by the Russian Government appeared to be that the deaths of Litvinenko and Politkovskaya were intended to embarrass President Putin. Other allegations included involvement of rogue FSB members{{cite news

|title = Litvinenko affair: now the man who warned him poisoned too

|work = The Guardian

|date = 2 December 2006

|url = https://www.theguardian.com/russia/article/0,,1962354,00.html

|access-date = 2 December 2006

|location = London

|first = Ian

|last = Cobain

|archive-date = 5 December 2006

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061205135012/http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0%2C%2C1962354%2C00.html

|url-status = live

}} or suggestions that Litvinenko was killed because of his research of certain Russian corporations or state officials,{{cite news

|last = McGrory

|first = Daniel and Halpin, Tony

|title = Poisoned spy visited Israel with oil dossier

|work = The Times

|date = 27 November 2006

|url = http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2473385_1,00.html

|access-date = 27 November 2006

|location = London

|archive-date = 19 August 2023

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230819195056/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/

|url-status = dead

}}{{cite news

| title = Litvinenko murdered over damaging file on Russian business partner: BBC

| publisher = Yahoo!

| date = 16 December 2006

| url = https://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061216/wl_uk_afp/britainrussiaspycompany_061216164519

| access-date =20 December 2006 }}{{Dead link |date=September 2009}} or as a political intrigue to undermine president Putin.{{cite news

| title = Radioactive Trail Follows Litvinenko

| newspaper = St. Petersburg Times

| date = 28 November 2006

| url = http://www.times.spb.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=19601

| access-date = 2 December 2006

| archive-date = 14 August 2009

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090814025517/http://www.times.spb.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=19601

| url-status = live

}}

In December 2006, Litvinenko's father Walter accused President Putin of ordering his son's murder and said he had no doubt the FSB had been involved. "The cynical murder of my son was a calculated act of intimidation," he said.{{cite news|last=McSmith|first=Andy|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/alexander-litvinenko-death-son-calculated-act-intimidation-putin-murder-a8244351.html|title=Alexander Litvinenko: Father of poisoned Russian spy claims 'Putin murdered my son'|work=The Independent|date=8 March 2018|access-date=29 December 2020|archive-date=15 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210215153228/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/alexander-litvinenko-death-son-calculated-act-intimidation-putin-murder-a8244351.html|url-status=live}} In April 2018, Litvinenko senior, who had returned to Russia in 2012 after a period of exile in Italy, appeared in a 30-minute interview on RT and said his son had been murdered by Alex Goldfarb, who he said was an agent of the CIA. The elder Litvinenko's later claims have been found to be false.{{cite news|last=Harding|first=Luke|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/22/litvinenko-widow-threatens-sue-rt-libellous-claims|title=Litvinenko widow threatens to sue RT over 'libellous' claims|work=The Guardian|date=22 June 2018|access-date=29 December 2020|archive-date=9 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201109032000/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/22/litvinenko-widow-threatens-sue-rt-libellous-claims|url-status=live}}

;Andrey Lugovoy : A former Federal Protective Service officer and millionaire who met with Litvinenko on the day he fell ill (1 November). He had visited London at least three times in the month before Litvinenko's death and met with the victim four times. Traces of polonium-210 have been discovered in all three hotels where Lugovoy stayed after flying to London on 16 October, and in the Pescatori restaurant in Dover Street, Mayfair, where Lugovoy is understood to have dined before 1 November; and aboard two aircraft on which he had travelled.[http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article2129960.ece Litvinenko inquiry closes in on suspected killers] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070107124737/http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article2129960.ece |date=7 January 2007 }} The Independent. 6 January 2007. By Jason Bennetto, Crime Correspondent{{Cite news|date=15 March 2016|title=News|language=en-GB|work=The Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/|access-date=15 February 2021|issn=0307-1235|archive-date=8 March 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070308092408/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2007%2F03%2F06%2Fwhurley106.xml|url-status=live}} He has declined to say whether he had been contaminated with polonium-210.[http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21037379-38200,00.html Litvinenko murder witness leaves hospital] Reuters. 10 January 2007 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071201124941/http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21037379-38200,00.html |date=1 December 2007 }} The Crown Prosecution Service has charged him with murder and has sent an extradition request to Russia that includes a summary of the evidence, but the only{{citation needed|date=June 2023}} third party to have seen the extradition request, American journalist Edward Epstein, has described the substantiation as "embarrassingly thin".{{cite web|url=http://www.nysun.com/foreign/specter-that-haunts-the-death-of-litvinenko/73212/|title=The Specter That Haunts the Death of Litvinenko|author=EDWARD JAY EPSTEIN|access-date=8 June 2008|archive-date=18 November 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121118021346/http://www.nysun.com/foreign/specter-that-haunts-the-death-of-litvinenko/73212/|url-status=dead}}

;Dmitry Kovtun : A Russian businessman and ex-KGB agent who met Litvinenko in London first in mid-October and then on 1 November, the day Litvinenko fell ill. On 7 December Kovtun was hospitalized, with some sources initially reporting him to be in a coma. On 9 December, German police found traces of radiation at a Hamburg flat used by Kovtun. The following day, 10 December, German investigators identified the detected material as polonium-210 and clarified that the substance was found where Kovtun had slept the night before departing for London. British police also report having detected polonium on the plane in which Kovtun travelled from Moscow.{{cite news

| last = The Economist

| title = A Remarkable Plot

| newspaper = Economist

| date = 11 December 2006

| url = http://www.economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8401580&top_story=1

| access-date = 11 December 2006

| archive-date = 13 December 2006

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061213224001/http://www.economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8401580&top_story=1

| url-status = live

}} Three other points in Hamburg were identified as contaminated with the same substance.{{cite web|last=German Press Agency |title=Kovtun contaminated with polonium on way through Hamburg |publisher=German Press Agency |date=10 December 2006 |url=http://rawstory.com/news/2006/Kovtun_contaminated_with_polonium_o_12102006.html |access-date=10 December 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090818082631/http://rawstory.com/news/2006/Kovtun_contaminated_with_polonium_o_12102006.html |archive-date=18 August 2009 }} On 12 December Kovtun told Russia's Channel One TV that his "health was improving".

: Kovtun was under investigation by German detectives for suspected plutonium smuggling into Germany in October.{{cite news

| title = Interpol joins Litvinenko inquiry

| work = BBC News

| date = 13 December 2006

| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6172765.stm

| access-date = 14 December 2006

| archive-date = 18 December 2006

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061218033525/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6172765.stm

| url-status = live

}} Germany dropped the case against Kovtun in November 2009.{{cite web|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6915002.ece|title=Login|others=Dead link or subscription required|access-date=6 January 2011|archive-date=19 August 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230819195115/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/|url-status=dead}}

; Yegor Gaidar : The sudden illness of Yegor Gaidar in Ireland on 24 November 2006, the day of Litvinenko's death, has been linked to his visit to the restaurant where polonium was present and is being investigated as part of the overall investigation in the UK and Ireland.,{{cite news

| last = Anderson

| first =Paul

| title = Kildare incident linked to Litvinenko death

|newspaper=The Irish Times

| date = 29 November 2006

| url = http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2006/1129/breaking82.htm

| access-date =30 November 2006 }} Other observers noted he was probably poisoned after drinking a strange-tasting cup of tea. Gaidar was taken to hospital; doctors said his condition was not life-threatening and that he would recover.{{cite web

| title = Gaidar's family and friends refuse to say which hospital he is located in, for fear of his life

| publisher = Newsru

| date = 30 November 2006

| url = http://www.newsru.com/russia/30nov2006/gaidar.html

| access-date = 30 November 2006

| language = ru

| archive-date = 6 May 2008

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080506075329/http://www.newsru.com/russia/30nov2006/gaidar.html

| url-status = live

}}{{cite web

| title = White Noise

| date = 30 November 2006

| url = http://www.ej.ru/dayTheme/entry/5498/

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061205101242/http://www.ej.ru/dayTheme/entry/5498/

| archive-date = 5 December 2006

| access-date =30 November 2006|language=ru}} This incident was similar to the poisoning of Anna Politkovskaya on a flight to Beslan. Afterwards, Gaidar claimed that it was enemies of the Kremlin who had tried to poison him.

; Mario Scaramella : The United Kingdom's Health Protection Agency (HPA) announced that significant quantities of polonium-210 had been found in Mario Scaramella although his health was found to be normal. He was admitted to hospital for tests and monitoring.{{cite web|last=Davies |first=Andrew |title=Positive radiation test |publisher=Channel 4 |date=1 December 2006 |url=http://www.channel4.com/news/special-reports/special-reports-storypage.jsp?id=4049 |access-date=2 December 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090114060829/http://www.channel4.com/news/special-reports/special-reports-storypage.jsp?id=4049 |archive-date=14 January 2009 }} Doctors say that Scaramella was exposed to a much lower level of polonium-210 than Litvinenko, and that preliminary tests found "no evidence of radiation toxicity".{{cite news

| title = Italian undergoing tests in poisoned spy case

| agency = Associated Press

| date = 2 December 2006

| url = https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna16002222

| access-date = 2 December 2006

| archive-date = 5 March 2016

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160305111438/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/16002222/

| url-status = live

}} According to the 6 pm Channel 4 news (9 December 2006), the intake of polonium he suffered would only result in a dose of {{convert|1|mSv|mrem|lk=on}}.{{citation needed|reason=A record of this claim is needed for evaluation|date= April 2023}} This would lead to a 1 in 20,000 chance of cancer.{{dubious|reason=Calculating cancer risk purely by radiation exposure is questionable practice, again a proper citation is needed to evaluate this claim|date=April 2023}} According to The Independent, Scaramella alleged that Litvinenko was involved in smuggling radioactive material to Zürich in 2000.{{cite news

|last=Milmo

|first=Cahal

|author2=Popham, Peter

|author3=Bennetto, Jason

|title=Litvinenko 'smuggled nuclear material'

|date=29 November 2006 |url=http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article2023856.ece

|access-date=2 December 2006 |location=London

|work=The Independent

|url-status=dead

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080114073131/http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article2023856.ece

|archive-date=14 January 2008 }}

: Boris Volodarsky, a KGB defector residing in London, stated that Evgeni Limarev, another former KGB officer residing in France, continued collaboration with the FSB, infiltrated Litvinenko's and Scaramella's circles of trust and misinformed the latter.{{Cite web|date=8 March 2007|title="Они хотели завести на Литвиненко человека, который выступил бы как предполагаемый преступник" - svobodanews.ru|url=http://www.svobodanews.ru/Article/2007/03/06/20070306173434490.html|access-date=15 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070308134134/http://www.svobodanews.ru/Article/2007/03/06/20070306173434490.html|archive-date=8 March 2007}}{{cite web|url=http://www.ilgiornale.it/a.pic1?ID=153326|title=Così gli 007 di Mosca hanno incastrato Scaramella|work=ilGiornale.it|access-date=7 March 2007|archive-date=8 October 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071008075219/http://www.ilgiornale.it/a.pic1?ID=153326|url-status=live}}{{cite news

|script-title=ru:"Мой агент Саша" Литвиненко

|url=http://www.svobodanews.ru/content/article/1885663.html

|publisher=Radio Liberty

|date=23 November 2009

|first=Anastasiya

|last=Kirilenko

|language=ru

|access-date=23 November 2009

|archive-date=24 November 2009

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091124194850/http://www.svobodanews.ru/content/article/1885663.html

|url-status=dead

}} (interview with Paolo Guzzanti)

; Marina Litvinenko : UK reports state Litvinenko's widow tested positive for polonium, though she was not seriously ill. The Ashdown Park hotel in Sussex was evacuated as a precaution, possibly to do with Scaramella's previous visit there.{{cite news

| title = Pair test positive for polonium

| publisher = BBC

| date = 1 December 2006

| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6199464.stm

| access-date = 2 December 2006

| archive-date = 22 December 2007

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071222115801/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6199464.stm

| url-status = live

}} According to the 6 pm Channel 4 (9 December 2006) news, the intake of polonium she suffered would only result in a dose of {{convert|100|mSv|rem|lk=on}}, leading to a 1 in 200 chance of cancer.

; Akhmed Zakayev : The forensic investigation also includes the silver Mercedes outside Litvinenko's home believed to be owned by his close friend and neighbour Akhmed Zakayev, then foreign minister of the separatist government in exile of Ichkeria.{{cite web

| last = Brownell

| first = Ginnane

| title = Did He Let His Guard Down?

| publisher = Newsweek/MSNBC

| date = 30 November 2006

| url = http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15975091/site/newsweek/

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061216100705/http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15975091/site/newsweek/

| archive-date = 16 December 2006

| url-status = dead

| access-date =3 January 2007}}{{cite web

|last = Stebbings

|first = Peter

|title = Radiation scare at home of poisoned ex-spy

|publisher = This Is Hertfordshire

|date = 30 November 2006

|url = http://www.thisishertfordshire.co.uk/news/roundup/display.var.1048696.0.radiation_scare_at_home_of_poisoned_exspy.php

|access-date = 30 November 2006

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070928011714/http://www.thisishertfordshire.co.uk/news/roundup/display.var.1048696.0.radiation_scare_at_home_of_poisoned_exspy.php

|archive-date = 28 September 2007

|df = dmy-all

}}{{cite news

| title = Moves to allay health fears after radiation found

|work=Daily Telegraph | date = 28 November 2006

| url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/health/2006/11/28/npoison125.xml

| archive-url = https://archive.today/20130505070739/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/health/2006/11/28/npoison125.xml

| url-status = dead

| archive-date = 5 May 2013

| access-date =30 November 2006

| location=London

| first1=Matt

| last1=Barnwell

| first2=Duncan

| last2=Gardham

| first3=Sally

| last3=Pook}} Reports now state that traces of radioactive material were found in the vehicle.{{cite web

| title = Polonium for Litvinenko's Murder Transported in Car of Chechen Emissary Ahmed Zakayev

| work = Daily Telegraph

| date = 2 December 2006

| url = http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n100761

| access-date = 2 December 2006

| archive-date = 27 September 2007

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070927225049/http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n100761

| url-status = dead

}}

; British police : Two London Metropolitan Police officers tested positive for ²¹⁰Po poisoning.{{cite news

| title = Spy widow points finger at Russia

| work = BBC News

| date = 10 December 2006

| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6165913.stm

| access-date = 10 December 2006

| archive-date = 7 January 2007

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070107230210/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6165913.stm

| url-status = live

}}

; Bar staff : Some of the bar staff at the hotel where the polonium-contaminated teacup was found were discovered to have suffered an intake of polonium (dose in the range of tens of mSv). These people include Norberto Andrade, the head barman and a long-time (27 years) worker at the hotel. He has described the situation thus:

: "When I was delivering gin and tonic to the table, I was obstructed. I couldn't see what was happening, but it seemed very deliberate to create a distraction. It made it difficult to put the drink down.

: "It was the only moment when the situation seemed unfriendly and something went on at that point. I think the polonium was sprayed into the teapot. There was contamination found on the picture above where Mr Litvinenko had been sitting and all over the table, chair and floor, so it must have been a spray.

: "When I poured the remains of the teapot into the sink, the tea looked more yellow than usual and was thicker – it looked gooey.

: "I scooped it out of the sink and threw it into the bin. I was so lucky I didn't put my fingers into my mouth, or scratch my eye as I could have got this poison inside me."{{cite news

|title = Litvinenko waiter recounts polonium poisoning

|work = Daily Telegraph

|date = 15 July 2007

|url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1557492/Litvinenko-waiter-recounts-polonium-poisoning.html

|access-date = 4 December 2013

|location = London

|first = Richard

|last = Gray

|archive-date = 2 September 2020

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200902163550/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1557492/Litvinenko-waiter-recounts-polonium-poisoning.html

|url-status = live

}}

• 7 June 1994: A remote-controlled bomb detonated aiming at chauffeured Mercedes 600 with oligarch Boris Berezovsky and his bodyguard in the rear seat. The driver was decapitated but Berezovsky managed to survive with severe burns. Litvinenko, then with the organized-crime unit of the FSB, was an investigating officer of the assassination attempt. The case was never solved, but it was at this point that Litvinenko befriended Berezovsky.
• 17 November 1998: At a time that Vladimir Putin was the head of the FSB, five officers including Lieutenant-Colonel Litvinenko accuse the Director of the Directorate for the Analysis of Criminal Organizations Major-General Eugeny Hoholkhov and his deputy, 1st Rank Captain Alexander Kamishnikov, of ordering them to assassinate Boris Berezovsky in November 1997.

• 7 October: The Russian journalist and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya is shot and killed in Moscow.
• 16 October: Andrey Lugovoy flies to London.
• 16–18 October: Former KGB agent Dmitry Kovtun visits London, during which time he eats two meals with Litvinenko, one of them at the Itsu sushi bar (see 1 November 2006).{{ cite news

|title = Litvinenko's associate 'in a coma' as spy murder mystery deepens

|work = The Independent

|date = 8 December 2006

|url = http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article2055590.ece

|access-date = 9 December 2006

|location = London

|first1 = Cahal

|last1 = Milmo

|first2 = Andrew

|last2 = Osborn

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070108191538/http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article2055590.ece

|archive-date = 8 January 2007

|df = dmy-all

}}{{cite news

| title = Litvinenko Contact Says He Was Contaminated by Ex-Spy

| publisher = Deutsche Welle

| date = 13 December 2006

| url = http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2270583,00.html

| access-date = 14 December 2006

| archive-date = 12 January 2007

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070112065221/http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0%2C2144%2C2270583%2C00.html

| url-status = live

}}

• 17 October: Litvinenko visits "Risc Management", a security firm in Cavendish Place, with Lugovoy and Kovtun.
• 19 October: Litvinenko accuses President Putin of the Politkovskaya murder.
• 28 October: Dmitry Kovtun arrives in Hamburg, Germany, from Moscow on an Aeroflot flight. German police later discover that the passenger seat of the car that picked him up at an airport was contaminated with polonium-210.
• 31 October: Dmitry Kovtun travels to London from Hamburg. German police found that his ex-wife's apartment in Hamburg was contaminated with polonium-210.[https://www.cbsnews.com/news/officials-traces-predate-spy-poisoning/ "Officials: Traces Predate Spy Poisoning"], CBS News, 10 December 2006

• 1 November: According to Oleg Gordievsky, Litvinenko meets with Andrey Lugovoy, Dmitry Kovtun and a third person in the Millennium Hotel sometime after 11:30 am, where he is served tea. All locations subsequently visited by him show traces of polonium-210. Just after 3 pm, at the Itsu sushi restaurant on Picadilly, Litvinenko meets the Italian security expert Mario Scaramella, who hands alleged evidence to him concerning the murder of Politkovskaya. Around 4:30 pm he meets Lugovoy and Kovtun again in the Millennium Hotel in London, the meeting only lasting 20 minutes. Later, Litvinenko goes to the office of Boris Berezovsky to copy the papers Scaramella had given him and hand them to Berezovsky before being driven home by Akhmed Zakayev at around 5:20 pm. He later falls ill.{{cite web

| url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna17332541

| title=Who killed Alexander Litvinenko?

| access-date=16 March 2007

| publisher=NBC News/NBC

| first=Ann

| last=Curry

| author-link=Ann Curry

| date=25 February 2007

| archive-date=8 May 2020

| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200508020842/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/17332541

| url-status=live

}}{{cite news

| url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article642902.ece

| title=Kremlin gave order to kill dissident and former spy, claims top defector

| access-date=16 March 2007

| work=The Times

| first=Michael

| last=Binyon

| location=London

| date=20 November 2006

| archive-date=15 June 2007

| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070615013149/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article642902.ece

| url-status=dead

}}{{cite news | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/11367177/Graphic-Timeline-of-events-around-Alexander-Litvinenkos-death.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/11367177/Graphic-Timeline-of-events-around-Alexander-Litvinenkos-death.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live

| title=Graphic: Timeline of events around Alexander Litvinenkos death

| work=Telegraph

| location=London

| date=21 January 2016}}{{cbignore}}

• 3 November: Litvinenko is brought into Barnet Hospital.
• 11 November: Litvinenko tells the BBC he was poisoned and is in very bad condition.
• 17 November: Litvinenko is moved to University College Hospital and placed under armed guard.
• 19 November: Reports emerge that Litvinenko has been poisoned with thallium, a chemical element used in the past as a rat poison.
• 20 November: Litvinenko is moved to the Intensive Care Unit. The police take statements from people with close relation to Litvinenko. A Kremlin speaker denies the Russian government is involved in the poisoning.
• 22 November: The hospital announces that Litvinenko's condition has worsened substantially.
• 23 November: 9:21 pm: Litvinenko dies.
• 24 November: Litvinenko's dictated deathbed statement is published. He accuses President Vladimir Putin of being responsible for his death. The Kremlin rejects the accusation. The HPA announces that significant amounts of polonium-210 have been found in Litvinenko's body. Traces of the same substance are also found at Litvinenko's house in North London, at Itsu and at the Millennium Hotel.
• 24 November: Sergei Abeltsev, State Duma member from the LDPR, in his Duma address he commented on the death of Litvinenko with the following words: The deserved punishment reached the traitor. I am sure his terrible death will be a warning to all the traitors that in Russia the treason is not to be forgiven. I would recommend to citizen Berezovsky to avoid any food at the commemoration for his crime accomplice Litvinenko{{cite web

|title=Address to Duma by Sergei Abeltsev

|publisher=Duma

|date=25 November 2006 |url=http://wbase.duma.gov.ru/steno/nph-sdb.exe?B0CW%5bF11&24.11.2006&F11&&F11&&F258&^&%5dH2512

|access-date=8 December 2006 |language=ru

}}{{dead link|date=January 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

• 24 November: The British police state they are investigating the death as a possible poisoning.
• 28 November: Scotland Yard announces that traces of polonium-210 have been found in seven different places in London. Among them, an office of the Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky, an avowed opponent of Putin.
• 29 November: The HPA announces screening of the nurses and physicians who treated Litvinenko. The authorities find traces of a radioactive substance on board British Airways planes.
• 30 November: Polonium-210 traces are found on a number of other planes, most of them going to Moscow.

• 1 December: An autopsy is performed on the body of Litvinenko. Toxicology results from Mr Litvinenko's post-mortem examination revealed two "spikes" of radiation poisoning, suggesting he received two separate doses. Scaramella tests positive for polonium-210 and is admitted into a hospital. Litvinenko's widow also tests positive for polonium-210, but was not sent to the hospital for treatment.
• 2 December: Scotland Yard's counter-terrorist unit have questioned Yuri Shvets, a former KGB spy who emigrated to the United States in 1993. He was questioned as a witness in Washington in the presence of FBI officers. Shvets claimed that he has a "lead that can explain what happened."
• 6 December: Scotland Yard announced that it is treating his death as a murder.{{cite web

| first=Jill

| last=Lawless

| title = Ex-spy's death to be treated as murder

| publisher = yahoo! AP

| date = 6 December 2006

| url =https://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061206/ap_on_re_eu/britain_poisoned_spy

| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20061207235346/http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061206/ap_on_re_eu/britain_poisoned_spy

| archive-date =7 December 2006

| access-date =8 December 2006 }}

• 7 December: Confused reports state that Dmitry Kovtun was hospitalized, the reason has not yet been made clear.
• 7 December: Russian Office of the Prosecutor General has opened a criminal case over poisoning of Litvinenko and Kovtun by the articles "Murder committed in a way endangering the general public" (убийство, совершенное общеопасным способом) and "Attempted murder of two or more persons committed in a way endangering the general public."{{cite web

|title = General Procurator's office of the Russian Federation filed criminal charges of the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, and the attempted murder of Dmitry Kovtuna

|publisher = Yahoo! AP

|date = 7 December 2006

|url = http://www.genproc.gov.ru/ru/news/news_current.shtml?2006/12/5159.html

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070118144530/http://genproc.gov.ru/ru/news/news_current.shtml?2006%2F12%2F5159.html

|archive-date = 18 January 2007

|access-date = 8 December 2006

|url-status = dead

|df = dmy-all

}}

• 8 December: Kovtun is reported to be in coma.
• 9 December: German police find traces of radiation at Hamburg flat used by Kovtun.{{cite news

| title = Radiation 'trace' at Hamburg flat

| work = BBC News

| date = 9 December 2006

| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6163667.stm

| access-date = 9 December 2006

| archive-date = 8 November 2012

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121108044136/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6163667.stm

| url-status = live

}}

• 9 December: UK police identify a single cup at the Pines Bar in the Millennium Hotel in Mayfair which was almost certainly the one used to administer the poison.{{cite news

|title = POISON SPY: IT WAS IN HIS TEA Cups were 'nuked'

|work = Daily Mirror

|date = 9 December 2006

|url = https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_headline%3Dpoison-spy--it-was-in-his-tea-%26method%3Dfull%26objectid%3D18235402%26siteid%3D94762-name_page.html

|access-date = 9 December 2006

|archive-date = 10 January 2007

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070110030114/http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_headline%3Dpoison-spy--it-was-in-his-tea-%26method%3Dfull%26objectid%3D18235402%26siteid%3D94762-name_page.html

|url-status = live

}}

• 11 December: Andrey Lugovoy is interrogated in Moscow by UK Scotland Yard and General Procurator's office of the Russian Federation. He refuses to reveal any information concerning the interrogation.{{cite news

|title = Луговой не сказал, чем интересовались генпрокуратура РФ и Скотланд-Ярд

|publisher = RIA Novosti

|date = 11 December 2006

|url = http://www.rian.ru/defense_safety/investigations/20061211/56772372.html

|access-date = 11 December 2006

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070102025928/http://www.rian.ru/defense_safety/investigations/20061211/56772372.html

|archive-date = 2 January 2007

|df = dmy-all

}}

• 12 December: Dmitry Kovtun tells a Russian TV station that his "health [is] improving".
• 24 December: Mario Scaramella was arrested in Naples on his return from London, on apparently unrelated charges.{{cite news

|title = Dead spy's Italy contact arrested

|publisher = BBC

|date = 24 December 2006

|url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6208065.stm

|access-date = 24 December 2006

|archive-date = 30 December 2006

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061230011957/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6208065.stm

|url-status = live

}}

• 27 December: Prosecutor General of Russia Yury Chaika accused Leonid Nevzlin, a former Vice President of Yukos, exiled in Israel and wanted by Russian authorities for a long time, of involvement in the poisoning, a charge dismissed by the latter as a nonsense.{{cite news | url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/12/28/npoison28.xml | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070118021410/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2006%2F12%2F28%2Fnpoison28.xml | url-status=dead | archive-date=18 January 2007 | work=The Daily Telegraph | location=London | title=Oil billionaire named in Litvinenko inquiry | first=Duncan | last=Gardham | date=28 December 2006 | access-date=22 May 2010 }}

• 5 February: Boris Berezovsky told the BBC that on his deathbed, Litvinenko said that Lugovoy was responsible for his poisoning.{{cite news

| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6333809.stm

| title = Litvinenko friend breaks silence

| publisher = BBC

| date = 5 February 2007

| access-date = 11 March 2007

| archive-date = 7 March 2007

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070307145240/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6333809.stm

| url-status = live

}}

• 6 February: The text of a letter written by Litvinenko's widow on 31 January to Putin, demanding that Putin work with British authorities on solving the case, was released.{{cite web

| url = http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/05/news/poison.php

| title = Litvinenko's widow challenges Putin to bring killers to justice

| access-date = 11 March 2007

| archive-date = 31 March 2007

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070331204134/http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/02/05/news/poison.php

| url-status = live

}}

• 8 February 2007: Update to HPA (Health Protection Agency) investigation of polonium 210 incident.{{cite web

|url = http://www.hpa.org.uk/NewsCentre/NationalPressReleases/2007PressReleases/070208Pol210Update/

|title = Update to investigation of Polonium 210 incident

|publisher = Health Protection Agency (H.P.A.).

|access-date = 29 October 2011

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111108154248/http://www.hpa.org.uk/NewsCentre/NationalPressReleases/2007PressReleases/070208Pol210Update/

|archive-date = 8 November 2011

|df = dmy-all

}}

• 21 May: Sir Ken Macdonald QC (Director of Public Prosecutions of England and Wales ) says that Lugovoy should face trial for the "grave crime" of murdering Litvinenko.
• 22 May: Macdonald announces that Britain will seek extradition of Lugovoy and attempt to charge him with murdering Litvinenko. The Russian government states that they will not allow the extradition of any Russian citizens.{{cite web|title=British Prosecutors to Press Murder Charges in Litvinenko Case |url=http://voanews.com/english/22May2007-voa13.cfm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211114164148/https://www.voanews.com/english/22May2007-voa13.cfm |url-status=dead |archive-date=14 November 2021 |publisher=Voice of America |access-date=22 May 2007 |date=22 May 2007 }}
• 28 May: The British Foreign Office formally submits a request to the Russian Government for the extradition of Lugovoy to the UK to face criminal charges.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6698545.stm|title=BBC NEWS – UK – UK requests Lugovoi extradition|date=28 May 2007|access-date=28 May 2007|archive-date=4 June 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070604061927/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6698545.stm|url-status=live}}
• The Constitution of Russia forbids extradition of Russian citizens to foreign countries (Article 61), so the request can not be fulfilled.{{cite web |url=http://www.constitution.ru/en/10003000-03.htm |title=The Constitution of the Russian Federation. Chapter 2. Rights and Freedoms of Man and Citizen |publisher=Constitution.ru |access-date=21 November 2010 |archive-date=10 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190310043417/http://www.constitution.ru/en/10003000-03.htm |url-status=live }}

Extradition requests had been granted in the past (For example, in 2002 Murad Garabayev has been handed to Turkmenistan.,{{cite web|url=http://www.russiaprofile.org/page.php?pageid=CDI+Russia+Profile+List&articleid=a1184779596|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927004421/http://www.russiaprofile.org/page.php?pageid=CDI+Russia+Profile+List&articleid=a1184779596|title=Russia Profile – Britain cuts off its nose to spite Russia's face|archive-date=27 September 2007}} Garabayev's extradition was later found unlawful by the Russian courts and he was awarded €20,000 in damages to be paid by the Russian government by the European Court of Human Rights.{{cite web |url=http://sim.law.uu.nl/SIM/CaseLaw/Hof.nsf/d0cd2c2c444d8d94c12567c2002de990/6a61916d53a30b1fc12572f10031c5c8?OpenDocument |title=Garabayev vs. Russia |publisher=Sim.law.uu.nl |access-date=21 November 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130222203236/http://sim.law.uu.nl/SIM/CaseLaw/Hof.nsf/d0cd2c2c444d8d94c12567c2002de990/6a61916d53a30b1fc12572f10031c5c8?OpenDocument |archive-date=22 February 2013 }}) Article 63 does not explicitly mention Russian citizens, and therefore does not apply to them, but only to foreign nationals living in Russia. Article 61 supersedes it for the people holding the Russian citizenship.

• 31 May: Lugovoy held a news conference at which he accused MI6 of attempting to recruit him and blamed either MI6, the Russian mafia, or fugitive Kremlin opponent Boris Berezovsky for the killing.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6706921.stm|title=BBC NEWS – Europe – UK 'behind Litvinenko poisoning'|date=31 May 2007|access-date=3 June 2007|archive-date=12 June 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070612133906/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6706921.stm|url-status=live}}

• 16 July: The British Foreign Office confirms that, as a result of Russia's refusal to extradite Lugovoy, four Russian diplomats are to be expelled from the Russian Embassy in London.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6901346.stm|title=BBC NEWS – UK – UK Politics – UK expels four Russian diplomats|date=16 July 2007|access-date=16 July 2007|archive-date=18 August 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070818053633/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6901346.stm|url-status=live}}
• 17 July: Russia's deputy foreign minister, Alexander Grushko, threatens to expel 80 UK diplomats.{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6902046.stm |title=Russia to expel 80 UK diplomats |work=BBC News |date=17 July 2007 |access-date=21 November 2010 |archive-date=23 February 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130223083945/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6902046.stm |url-status=live }}
• 19 July: The Russian Foreign ministry spokesman, Mikhail Kamynin, announced the expulsion of four UK diplomats from the British Embassy in Moscow.{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6906481.stm |title=Russia expels 4 UK diplomats |work=BBC News |date=19 July 2007 |access-date=21 November 2010 |archive-date=12 January 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090112042232/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6906481.stm |url-status=live }}

• 27 October: Alexander Litvinenko is reported to have been an MI6 agent. Such claims have been denied by Marina Litvinenko{{cite news

| title = Widow Says Litvinenko's Accuser Being Directed By FSB

| publisher = Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

| date = 4 June 2007

| url = http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/06/909eb910-41f9-46c3-9b26-344b27af2e7c.html

| access-date = 9 March 2008

| archive-date = 18 March 2008

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080318002402/http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/06/909eb910-41f9-46c3-9b26-344b27af2e7c.html

| url-status = live

}} and Oleg Gordievsky.{{cite news

|title = Litvinenko's widow denies claims he was MI6 spy

|publisher = Independent News and Media Limited

|date = 28 October 2007

|url = http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article3104665.ece

|access-date = 9 March 2008

|location = London

|first = Nina

|last = Lakhani

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071028194116/http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article3104665.ece

|archive-date = 28 October 2007

|df = dmy-all

}}

• In a 16 December 2008 interview, when asked by the Spanish newspaper El País if Litvinenko could have been killed in the interests of the Russian state, Lugovoy – wanted by British police on suspicion of the murder of Litvinenko – replied that he would order the assassination of anyone, for example, President Saakashvili of Georgia and the KGB defector Gordievsky, in the interests of the Russian state.{{in lang|ru}} [http://www.interfax.ru/politics/news.asp?id=51832 Луговой считает, что Саакашвили можно было бы уничтожить в интересах российского государства (Lugovoy thinks Saakashvili can be exterminated in the interests of the Russian state)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090822130543/http://www.interfax.ru/politics/news.asp?id=51832 |date=22 August 2009 }}. Interfax. 16 December 2008

According to the IAEA, in 1960, a person ingested 74 MBq of radium (assumed to be ²²⁶Ra) and this person died four years later.{{cite web

|first = Abel J

|last = Gonzáles

|title = Timely action

|publisher = International Atomic Energy Agency

|date = March 1999

|url = http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Magazines/Bulletin/Bull413/article1.pdf

|access-date = 8 December 2006

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090326181428/http://www.iaea.org/Publications/Magazines/Bulletin/Bull413/article1.pdf

|archive-date = 26 March 2009

|df = dmy

}} Harold McCluskey survived 11 years (eventually dying from cardio respiratory failure) after an intake of at least 37 MBq of ²⁴¹Am (He was exposed in 1976). It is estimated that he suffered doses of 18 Gy to his bone mass, 520 Gy to the bone surface, 8 Gy to the liver and 1.6 Gy to the lungs; it is also claimed that a post mortem examination revealed no signs of cancer in his body. The October 1983 issue of the journal Health Physics was dedicated to McCluskey, and subsequent papers about him appeared in the September 1995 issue.{{cite web

|last=Gene

|first=Carbaugh

|title=Harold McCluskey & Hanford Accident

|publisher=Vanderbilt University

|date=6 May 1996

|url=http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/9605/msg00108.html

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030609233613/http://www.vanderbilt.edu/radsafe/9605/msg00108.html

|archive-date=9 June 2003

|access-date=8 December 2006}}

{{See also|List of journalists killed in Russia}}

Comparisons have been made to the alleged 2004 poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko, the alleged 2003 poisoning of Yuri Shchekochikhin and the fatal 1978 poisoning of the journalist Georgi Markov by the Bulgarian Committee for State Security. The incident with Litvinenko has also attracted comparisons to the poisoning by radioactive (unconfirmed) thallium of KGB defector Nikolay Khokhlov and journalist Shchekochikhin of Novaya Gazeta (the Novaya Gazeta interview with the former, coincidentally, prepared by Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was later found shot to death in her apartment building).{{cite web

| script-title = ru:ВСТРЕЧА С ПРОШЛЫМ

| publisher = Novaya Gazeta

| date = 1 January 2004

| url = http://2004.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2004/46n/n46n-s10.shtml

| access-date = 21 November 2006

| language = ru

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060727120235/http://2004.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2004/46n/n46n-s10.shtml

| archive-date = 27 July 2006

| url-status = dead

}} Like Litvinenko, Shchekochikhin had investigated the Russian apartment bombings (he was a member of the Kovalev Commission that hired Litvinenko's friend Mikhail Trepashkin as a legal counsel).

KGB defector and British agent Oleg Gordievsky believes the murders of Yandarbiev, Yushenkov, Shchekochikhin, Tsepov, Politkovskaya and the incident with Litvinenko show that the FSB has returned to the practice of political assassinations,{{cite web

|script-title = ru:Бывший резидент КГБ Олег Гордиевский не сомневается в причастности к отравлению Литвиненко российских спецслужб

|publisher = svobodanews.ru

|date = 20 November 2006

|url = http://www.svobodanews.ru/Transcript/2006/11/20/20061120204213113.html

|access-date = 24 November 2006

|language = ru

|archive-date = 24 February 2008

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080224091752/http://www.svobodanews.ru/Transcript/2006/11/20/20061120204213113.html

|url-status = live

}} which were conducted in the past by Thirteenth Department of the KGB.Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West, Gardners Books (2000), {{ISBN|0-14-028487-7}} A comparison was also made with Roman Tsepov{{cite web

| last = Gurin

| first = Charles

| title = Roman Tsepov, RIP

| work= Eurasia Daily Monitor

| publisher = The Jamestown Foundation

| date = 27 September 2004

| url =http://www.jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2368580

| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20070930155103/http://www.jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2368580

| archive-date =30 September 2007

| access-date =8 December 2006 }} who was responsible for the personal security of Anatoly Sobchak and Putin, and who died in Russia in 2004 from poisoning by an unknown radioactive substance.{{cite web

| script-title = ru:Для внутреннего употребления

| publisher = Novaya Gazeta

| date = 30 November 2006

| url = http://2006.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2006/91n/n91n-s00.shtml

| access-date = 2 December 2006

| language = ru

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061212113427/http://2006.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2006/91n/n91n-s00.shtml

| archive-date = 12 December 2006

| url-status = dead

}}{{cite news

|title = The Laboratory 12 poison plot

|work = The Times

|date = 8 April 2007

|url = http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1625866.ece

|access-date = 21 January 2008

|location = London

|archive-date = 3 December 2008

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081203111036/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1625866.ece

|url-status = dead

}}

FSB special forces officers from Alpha Group and Vympel were seen to be using Litvinenko photos for target practice in shooting sessions just before his poisoning, according to Russian journalist Yulia Latynina.{{cite web

| last = Latynina

| first = Yulia

| script-title=ru:Вам удастся заставить молчать одного человека

| date = 28 November 2006

| url = http://www.ej.ru/dayTheme/entry/5474/

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061209234331/http://www.ej.ru/dayTheme/entry/5474/

| archive-date = 9 December 2006

| access-date =28 November 2006 |language=ru}}

• 60 Minutes aired a segment entitled "Who Killed Alexander Litvinenko?" on 7 January 2007. A transcript is available online.{{cite news

| title =60 Minutes Episode "Who Killed Alexander Litvinenko?"

| publisher =CBS TV News

| date =7 January 2007

| url =http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/05/60minutes/main2333207.shtml

| access-date =7 January 2007

| archive-date =9 January 2007

| archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20070109173951/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/01/05/60minutes/main2333207.shtml

| url-status =dead

}}

• Thriller writers Frederick Forsyth and Andy McNab claimed that the killing of Alexander Litvinenko is a classic case of fact being stranger than fiction and that they would be fighting a losing battle if they offered a Litvinenko-style story to a publisher.{{cite news

| last = Majendie

| first = Paul

| title = Spy writers say Litvinenko case stranger than fiction

| agency = Reuters

|work=The Scotsman

| date = 11 December 2006

| url = http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1840772006

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061213151302/http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1840772006

| archive-date = 13 December 2006

| access-date =13 December 2006

| location=Edinburgh}}

• The Polonium Restaurant (a Polish restaurant in Sheffield, England, owned by Boguslaw Sidorowicz and named after his folk band in the late 1970s) experienced increased interest and business as a result of internet searches for the phrase polonium restaurant.{{cite news

| title = Restaurant Polonium: In Sheffield klingeln die Kassen

| work = Die Zeit

| language = de

| publisher = ZEIT online GmbH

| date = 5 December 2006

| url = http://www.zeit.de/news/artikel/2006/12/05/83406.xml

| access-date = 6 June 2008

| archive-date = 7 June 2011

| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110607065328/http://www.zeit.de/news/artikel/2006/12/05/83406.xml

| url-status = live

}}{{cite news

| title = Business booming at Polonium restaurant in English city, manager says

| work = International Herald Tribune | date = 1 December 2006

| url = http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/01/europe/EU_GEN_Britain_Polonium_Restaurant.php

| access-date =6 June 2008}}{{Cite news |title=Polonium Name Drives Customers to Restaurant |language=en |work=NPR.org |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6585614 |access-date=2022-04-14 |archive-date=14 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220414203155/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6585614 |url-status=live }}

• Rebellion: The Litvinenko Case (distributed as Poisoned by Polonium) is a 2007 Russian documentary film about Litvinenko's activities and death.{{Cite journal |title=Nekrasov's Chemical Romance |author=Mercer, Martha |journal=The New York Sun |date=March 21, 2008 |url=http://www.nysun.com/arts/nekrasovs-chemical-romance/73420/ |access-date=25 January 2023 |archive-date=27 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227062624/https://www.nysun.com/arts/nekrasovs-chemical-romance/73420/ |url-status=dead }}
• Hunting the KGB Killers is a Channel 4 documentary released in 2017 on the poisoning.{{Cite web |date=2017-04-18 |title=Hunting the KGB Killers – gripping documentary more outrageous than a spy movie |url=http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/apr/18/hunting-the-kgb-killers-gripping-documentary-more-outrageous-than-a-spy-movie |access-date=2022-10-29 |website=the Guardian |language=en |archive-date=29 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221029004149/https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/apr/18/hunting-the-kgb-killers-gripping-documentary-more-outrageous-than-a-spy-movie |url-status=live }}
• The British TV series, Litvinenko, is a four-part dramatisation of the assassination and subsequent investigation. It stars David Tennant in the title role. It premièred on ITVX on 15 December 2022.{{cite news |last1=Moss |first1=Molly |title=Litvinenko release date, cast and plot for David Tennant ITVX drama |url=https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/litvinenko-itv-release-date/ |access-date=21 January 2023 |work=Radio Times |date=3 August 2022 |language=en |archive-date=19 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119222247/https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/litvinenko-itv-release-date/ |url-status=live }}

{{div col|colwidth=30em}}

• Active measures
• Extrajudicial killing
• List of crimes involving radioactive substances
• Litvinenko Justice Foundation
• Nuclear terrorism
• Poison laboratory of the Soviet secret services
• Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal
• Russia – United Kingdom relations

{{div col end}}

{{Reflist}}

{{Alexander Litvinenko}}

{{Toxicology}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Litvinenko, Alexander}}

Category:2006 murders in the United Kingdom

Category:2006 in Russia

Category:2006 in politics

Category:2000s murders in London

Category:Alexander Litvinenko

Category:Assassinations in the United Kingdom

Category:Deaths by person in London

Category:Element toxicology

Category:November 2006 in the United Kingdom

Category:November 2006 crimes in Europe

Category:Nuclear terrorism

Category:Poisoning by drugs, medicaments and biological substances

Category:Polonium

Category:Russia–United Kingdom relations

Category:European Court of Human Rights cases involving Russia

Category:Article 2 of Protocol No. 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights

Category:Deaths by poisoning

Category:State-sponsored terrorism