Posted on 01/21/2007 5:47:59 AM PST by nuconvert
British Police Identify Suspected Killer of Poisoned Ex-Russian Spy
January 21, 2007
LONDON — Police have identified the man they believe poisoned Alexander Litvinenko. The suspected killer was captured on cameras at Heathrow as he flew into Britain to carry out the murder.
Friends of the ex-spy say that the man was a hired killer, sent by the Kremlin, who vanished hours after administering a deadly dose of radioactive polonium-210 to Litvinenko.
He arrived in London on a forged EU passport and reportedly slipped the poison into a cup of tea he made for Litvinenko in a London hotel room. Litvinenko was reportedly able to give vital details of his suspected killer in a bedside interview with detectives just days before he died on November 23 at University College Hospital.
Police have decided not to publish pictures of this man, who was seen on CCTV cameras as he flew in from Hamburg on November 1, the day that Litvinenko fell ill.
He is described as being tall and powerfully built, in his early thirties with short, cropped black hair and distinctive Central Asian features.
He reportedly traveled on the same flight as Dimitri Kovtun, a Russian businessman who is being investigated for trafficking the radioactive material used in the poison plot.
Oleg Gordievsky, a former KGB agent and friend of Litvinenko, who has worked closely with police on the investigation, said: “This man is believed to have used a Lithuanian or Slovak passport. He did not check into any hotel in London using the name or that passport, and he left the country using another EU passport.”
German police are investigating how polonium-210 was found in various locations Kovtun visited in Hamburg.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Best lol!
The Soviet KGB had a documented history of killing people with exotic materials (remember that Bulgarian dissident and the ricin pellet?), or making things look like "accidents," "suicides," or illnesses. (Maybe that's where Hillary's gang learned their tricks) It's naive at best to think that they would necessarily use crude methods like bullets. The KGB is no longer just an agency; under Pukin', they run the whole country, and are re-Sovietizing everything.
You scared me with that!
Think he was first; defining himself as an enemy of the Kremlin; of Putin as per his public investigations. . .converting to Islam on his deathbed; surely confirmed to Putin; that he did the right thing.
Not that Putin needed additional confirmation. . .
We seem to have alot of russian apologists on this website. They came out of the woodwork back when the russians botched the Moscow Theatre hostage ahem "rescue".
Using the 'same material' would be like advertising what one is doing regarding the trigger, suitcase nukes, and the poisoning. Not very secretive if you ask me. Too much of a red flag. 'They' would be playing their hand. That is precisely the Kremlin's mistake. A rather uncommon/exotic material is used in the commission of a crime. The 'smoking gun' has certain fingerprints on it.
Messing with the guy's brakes would have been less incriminating. Bludeoning the guy while out on a stroll and orchestrating a robbery would have left less of a trail.
What IS alarming though, is that the material is in 'circulation.'
Maybe the Kremlin does not want this to be a secret. It could be a wink and a nod to Great Britain that polonium triggers are in the hands or soon to be in the hands of radical muslims.
Could it be that the dead Russian spy, who had recently converted to Islam, been working on the side of radical Islam? Could it be that his death from polonium poisoning been a message sent by the Kremlin that polonium triggers are in circulation in London?
Picture this:
According to a UPI press report, this is what Oleg Gordievsky believes.
"His belief is that the water from the kettle was only lukewarm and that the polonium-210 was added, which heated the drink through radiation so he had a hot cup of tea. The poison would have showed up in a cold drink,"
Right (sarcasm) I can just envision former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko taking and drinking a bubbling cup of tea from a total stranger.
Link to UPI report: http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20070120-082114-2587r
Perhaps the killer was a trusted confidante of Litvinenko. His last mistake.
He had gone to the room with Kovtun and another former Russian agent, Andrei Lugovoy.
The three men were joined in the room later by the mystery figure who was introduced as 'Vladislav'.
Gordievsky told The Times yesterday how 'Vladislav' was described as someone who could help Litvinenko win a lucrative contract with a Moscow-based private security company.
'Sasha (his name for Litvinenko) remembered the man making him a cup of tea.'
'His belief is that the water from the kettle was only lukewarm and that the polonium-210 was added, which heated the drink through radiation so he had a hot cup of tea. The poison would have showed up in a cold drink,' he added.
The hotel room where Litvinenko thought he was poisoned remains sealed off. This room reportedly showed the heaviest concentration of polonium-210 found at a dozen locations across London."
Amazing. Another classic Russian who-done-it. I infer that the Kremlin continues to believe that Litvinenko himself was involved in a plot to poison Nevzlin and other Yukos officials. Although the canvas is certainly not yet dry as concerns this entire affair, every detail is captivating.
Thallium works just as well, is just as incurably fatal, slow, painful and very few survive a stiff dose. Plus thallium poisons are much harder to trace than polonium isotopes.
He is surely a hired gun. Who hired him is the million dollar question.
LOL.
If he wasn't a stranger, Litvinenko would have been able to put a name on this person. That he could not do. Supposedly, Lugovoy and Kovtun were to be in the room also.
> Perhaps the killer was a trusted confidante of Litvinenko. His last mistake.
Perhaps, Lugovoy or Kovtun.
Pardon me for butting in, but there is a antedote for either radioactive or non radioactive Thallium poisoning. It is named Prussian Blue.
Link: http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/infopage/prussian_blue/Q&A.htm#10
"Here's a nice cup of tea, Comrade Livenko, courtesy of Comrade Putin."
Now we know why they didn't want to post a picture of the suspect.
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