Poisoned ex-spy said man was tailing him
By Paul King,WNS UK Bureau Chief
LONDON - As he lay dying, an ex-Soviet spy poisoned in London named an alleged Russian agent he feared had been targeting him and who he had previously told police was harassing him, a British newspaper said in a report published Sunday.Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent and fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died Thursday night of heart failure after suddenly falling gravely ill from what doctors said was poisoning by a radioactive substance.Litvinenko alleged that a Russian Foreign Intelligence Service chief previously stationed in London had been assigned by Moscow to watch him, Britain's Sunday Times newspaper reported.
Litvinenko, who spoke to friends and dictated a vitriolic statement about Putin's government while in the hospital, claimed the Russian agent was not directly involved in his poisoning, but had been sent to monitor his activities, the newspaper said. London's Metropolitan police said it could not immediately confirm whether officers would seek to find and interview the alleged Russian agent named by Litvinenko. Police said anti-terrorist officers investigating the former agent's death had not found records of earlier harassment complaints during their inquiry. An audio recording of Litvinenko making the allegation was being handed over to officers, the Sunday Times reported. Police said no tape had yet been received. Russia's Embassy in London said it could not immediately comment on the claims. Britain's Foreign Office could not immediately confirm if a diplomat of the name used by Litvinenko had been based in London.
"Whilst in hospital Alexander named the man he alleged was watching him and said he had been the SVR (Russian Foreign Intelligence Service) station chief in London until 2003, posing as a diplomat at the Russian embassy," Litvinenko's friend Alex Goldfarb told The Associated Press. Litvinenko, 43, told police he believed he had been poisoned on Nov. 1 while investigating the October slaying of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, another critic of Putin's government. His contaminated body was released to a coroner by police Saturday and government pathologists were expected to begin an autopsy -- though nuclear experts claimed investigators may never pinpoint the exact source of the rare radioactive polonium-210 element found in the ex-spy's urine.
Britain's Health Protection Agency said the poisoning was "an unprecedented event." Traces of radiation were found at Litvinenko's north London house, a sushi bar where he met a contact on Nov. 1 and a hotel he had visited earlier that day, police said. British detectives investigating his death launched an international hunt for witnesses Saturday and spooled through hours of security video for clues. They were examining closed-circuit television footage and interviewing hotel and restaurant staff, a police spokeswoman said. In a dramatic deathbed statement, Litvinenko accused Putin -- who he called "barbaric and ruthless" -- of ordering his poisoning. Putin has called the death a tragedy and denied involvement.
posted by wnsworld @ 7:16 AM
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