Poisoned Russian Spy Dies

Updated: 00:43, Friday November 24, 2006

Former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko has died in hospital after being poisoned.

A spokesman for University College Hospital said the ex-KGB agent has died after his condition had been deteriorating throughout the day.

The Metropolitan Police are investigating his death as "an unexplained death".

Mr Litvinenko's supporters have accused the Russian government of poisoning the 43-year-old, who had been given asylum and citizenship in Britain after fleeing Russia.

They said he was killed because he was investigating the murder last month of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot dead near her Moscow apartment.

The Kremlin has said the accusation is "sheer nonsense".

Mr Litvinenko fell ill after meeting a contact, an Italian journalist, in a sushi restaurant in central London.

Dramatic photographs released this week showed him lying in intensive care. His hair had fallen out and his complexion was jaundiced.

Last night he suffered a heart attack and doctors said his condition had worsened. Friends and relatives were said to be rushing to his bedside fearing the worst.

Doctors still do not know what caused his illness, although they have said he was poisoned. Initial reports suggested he had been poisoned with thallium, or with a radioactive material, but doctors have now said this was not the case.

His friend Oleg Gordievsky, a former high-ranking KGB agent who defected to Britain, said Mr Litvinenko had been killed by two Russian secret agents who poisoned his tea during a meeting at a London hotel.

Mr Gordievsky told Sky News: "He was fighting against the evil forces in Russia, against the authorities which are depressing democracy and liberal freedoms in Russia."

Professor Mario Scaramella, the Italian who met Mr Litvinenko for lunch before he fell ill, said he had shown him documents suggesting that both men were on a hit-list.

Mr Litvinenko, an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin, was probing the murder of Ms Politkovskaya, who had become famous for exposing Russian atrocities in Chechnya. Thirteen journalists have been murdered in Russia since Mr Putin came to power in 2000. None of the cases has been solved.

Two years ago the Russian government denied any part in the poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko, the pro-Western presidential candidate in neighbouring Ukraine. He won the presidency after his pro-Russian rival was accused of trying to rig the elections.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13553419,00.html

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Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya (Russian: Àííà Ñòåïàíîâíà Ïîëèòêîâñêàÿ; 30 August 1958 – 7 October 2006) was a U.S.-born[1] Russian journalist and human rights activist well known for her opposition to the Chechen conflict and the Putin administration. She was murdered, shot to death in her apartment building on the 7th of October, 2006. Politkovskaya made her name reporting from Chechnya for Russia's liberal newspaper, Novaya Gazeta. Her writing was often polemic, as bitter in its condemnation of the Russian army leadership and the Russian government as it was fervent in support of human rights and the rule of law.[2] Her murder, seen as a contract killing, has caused a strong international reaction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Politkovskaya

The Second Chechen War is the military campaign initiated by Russia in 1999 that recaptured the separatist region of Chechnya, which had briefly gained de facto independence as the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria following the First Chechen War.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Chechen_War