POISONING OF EX-SPY IGNITES HEALTH SCARE

LONDON —  Counter-terrorism police investigating the mysterious death of a Russian spy-turned-dissident warned Friday of a potential public health hazard at two hospitals that treated him and three other locations where officials found traces of the radioactive material thought to have killed him.

On a day of dramatic revelations and accusations, authorities said they believed Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB agent and a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir V. Putin, died Thursday night from a lethal dose of polonium-210, a radioactive substance that is deadly only if ingested.

Concern about danger to the public prompted meetings Friday of a government committee that responds to national emergencies such as terrorist attacks.

Contamination could result from direct contact with the dead man’s bodily fluids, authorities said, or by swallowing polonium-210, inhaling it or absorbing it through an open wound. Investigators suspect the 43-year-old was poisoned Nov. 1, when he had meetings in central London at a sushi restaurant and a luxury hotel. Traces of the radioactive material have been found at both locations and his home in North London.

Health officials said they had worked overnight interviewing staffers at the hospitals that treated Litvinenko and were trying to determine the number of people at risk. The government appealed Friday night to anyone who ate at the restaurant Nov. 1 to contact health officials because they may have been contaminated.

“This is an unprecedented event in the U.K. in which someone has apparently been deliberately poisoned with a type of radiation,” said Pat Troop, executive director of the Health Protection Agency, which advises the government on major health threats such as radiation and infectious diseases.

Three days before he died, an emaciated Litvinenko dictated a statement from his hospital bed in which he accused the Russian secret services of poisoning him, friends and family revealed at a news conference Friday.

Saying he heard the “beating wings of the angel of death,” Litvinenko lashed out at Putin in the statement, read by his close friend Alexander Goldfarb.

“You have shown yourself to be as barbaric and ruthless as your most hostile critics have claimed,” Litvinenko said in the statement. “You have shown yourself to have no respect for life, liberty or any civilized value. You have shown yourself to be unworthy of your office, to be unworthy of the trust of civilized 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.”

Putin, whose government has repeatedly denied involvement, responded quickly. At a summit of the European Union and Russia in Helsinki, Finland, he called the death a tragedy and expressed condolences to the family. But he warned against political manipulation and “provocation.”

“I hope that British authorities will not assist in blowing up some kind of political scandals not based on real grounds,” Putin said. “If need be, the Russian authorities, including investigators and the Russian prosecutor’s office, will render all necessary assistance in the investigation.”

A sensitive case

Scotland Yard’s elite counter-terrorism unit is leading the investigation. The case is politically delicate, in part because Russian spy agencies have been accused or implicated in previous attacks on opponents, some of whom were poisoned.

A British official knowledgeable about the case, who asked not to be identified, said police conducted in-depth interviews of the hospitalized Litvinenko, four or five sessions lasting about four hours each. In addition, they are reconstructing his movements through interviews of witnesses and analysis of footage from London’s widespread surveillance camera network, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of the Counter Terrorism Command, said in a statement.

Police have assembled a detailed picture of the dead man’s life, the first British official said. They have not ruled out any theories, some of which are as convoluted and murky as Russia’s political underworld, the official said.

In contrast to the victim’s deathbed accusations against Putin, Russian leaders alleged Friday that exiled Russian “oligarch” Boris Berezovsky, a rival of Putin and ally of Litvinenko, may have engineered the plot to discredit the Kremlin.

Moreover, police have not discounted the possibility that Litvinenko, a veteran of an intelligence culture steeped in the use of poisons, somehow ingested the substance while handling it, the British official said.

“They are not ruling out anything,” the official said. “Our police are good and they will follow it wherever it goes. But they are not going to be affected by political pressure to go in only one direction. There are things that came up in the investigation of his life that don’t point all in one direction.”

Whoever the mastermind may be, the amount of the traces found at the restaurant and the relatively open form in which food is prepared and served at sushi bars are among factors making it likely that the poison was slipped into the victim’s food there, the official said.

It is also possible that Litvinenko was poisoned before the two meetings and left traces of the material at the location because it had gotten onto his hands or clothes, the official said.

The culprit had to be an expert. It is difficult to obtain polonium-210 and to employ it as a weapon, said Sally Leivesley, a security and terrorism advisor interviewed Friday by the BBC.

“It’s not only a weapon of assassination, it’s also a weapon of terror,” Leivesley said. “Let’s remember what happened with our victim, who has had an unfortunate and absolutely ghastly death.

“What we’re seeing is a very measured dose, so the understanding of the people who did this is absolutely acute.... If it had been too high, he would have gone into convulsions on the spot and he would have died immediately. If it had been too low, very fortunately he would have been able to recover, but perhaps been quite ill in the long term.”

Victim’s day

On Nov. 1, Litvinenko ate lunch at the Itsu sushi bar in the bustling Piccadilly area with Italian security analyst Mario Scaramella, who had come to London to discuss with him the killing in Moscow last month of Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian investigative journalist. Litvinenko was investigating her death. Scaramella showed him a Russian security hit list of anti-government critics on which the names of both Politkovskaya and Litvinenko appeared, according to Litvinenko’s accounts to journalists and friends.

Scaramella has denied any involvement and pledged full cooperation with police, saying that he now fears for his life.

After the meal with the Italian academic, officials said, Litvinenko had tea with two Russian men at the Millennium Hotel in Grosvenor Square, where the U.S. Embassy is located. One of the Russians was a former KGB officer, Andrei Lugovoy, and the other was referred to simply as Vladimir, according to Litvinenko’s accounts.

Lugovoy, who now runs a private security company, has denied wrongdoing, according to an interview published Friday in the Times of London newspaper. He described himself as a business associate of the slain man and identified the third man as Dmitri Kovron, a businessman, according to the Times. Lugovoy told the newspaper that Litvinenko had requested the meeting to discuss a British company interested in the Russian market, and that Litvinenko did not drink or eat anything during the afternoon conversation.

The sushi bar has been closed while it is searched for radioactive traces. Police said parts of the hotel also had been closed, but a hotel spokesman said all areas of the hotel were functioning normally Friday.

Litvinenko fell ill on the evening of Nov. 1 and was admitted to North London’s Barnet General Hospital. His condition worsened, and Nov. 17 he was transferred to University College Hospital in central London, where he was kept under armed surveillance.

In interviews and exchanges with friends from his hospital bed, he said he was the victim of a poisoning.

Doctors named thallium or some kind of radiation poisoning as the cause of his illness, but were unable to pinpoint the substance that caused excruciating pain and a gruesome transformation as his hair fell out and his organs failed.

By Thursday morning, he had been resuscitated from cardiac arrest, and after several hours on a respirator and life-support machine, he died about 9:20 p.m.

The substance that killed him is a radioactive material that occurs naturally and is present in the environment and people in very low concentrations, officials said. It is used industrially for anti-static devices in factories.

Although it cannot penetrate skin, if ingested it can cause an increased cancer risk or, if the quantity is large enough, destruction of body tissues and organs, officials said.

The dissident’s father, Walter, spoke tearfully Friday, saying his son displayed dignity and courage throughout his ordeal. He echoed his son’s denunciation of the Kremlin.

“My son died yesterday, and he was killed by a tiny nuclear bomb,” the elder Litvinenko said. “It was so small you could not see it. But the people who killed him have big nuclear bombs and missiles, and those people should not be trusted.”

rotella@latimes.com

Times staff writer David Holley in Moscow contributed to this report.

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Polonium-210 facts

Origin: A rare, radioactive element, polonium was discovered in 1898 by Marie and Pierre Curie. Occurs naturally in very low concentrations in Earth’s crust, and is made artificially in a nuclear reactor or particle accelerator. Polonium-210 is its most common isotope.

What it does: Emits alpha rays, which are extremely hard to detect and have less penetrating power than other radioactive emissions.

How it’s used: As a static eliminator in paper mills and other industries. The element’s alpha particles, because of their positive charge, attract loose electrons, reducing static charge. It was a critical component in early nuclear weapons and was used in power supply systems for 1970s Russian spacecraft.

How it kills: If swallowed, inhaled or absorbed, it can cause tissue damage in the spleen, kidneys, liver, lungs and bone marrow, which can lead to cancer and organ failure.

Sources: Environmental Protection Agency, Argonne National Laboratory, GlobalSecurity.org, Associated Press. Graphics reporting by Julie Sheer

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Dissident’s deathbed statement

I would like to thank many people. My doctors, nurses and hospital staff who are doing all they can for me; the British police who are pursuing my case with vigor and professionalism and are watching over me and my family. I would like to thank the British government for taking me under their care. I am honored to be a British citizen.

I would like to thank the British public for their messages of support and for the interest they have shown in my plight.

I thank my wife, Marina, who has stood by me. My love for her and our son knows no bounds.

But as I lie here, I can distinctly hear the beating of wings of the angel of death. I may be able to give him the slip, but I have to say my legs do not run as fast as I would like. I think, therefore, that 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 civilized value.

You have shown yourself to be unworthy of your office, to be unworthy of the trust of civilized 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.

From the Associated Press