Free Republic

THE Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has expressed his anger at Britain’s failure to gag Alexander Litvinenko in the final hours of his life, the cabinet has been told.Margaret Beckett, the foreign secretary, told ministers that the Russian government had “taken exception” to the poisoned former spy’s deathbed letter accusing the Putin regime of murdering him. This weekend a potential suspect — Andrei Lugovoi — admitted he had been contaminated with the radioactive poison polonium-210 but insisted: “I’ve been framed.” Beckett, who spoke to her Russian counterpart before Thursday’s cabinet meeting, said the Russians had “seemingly failed to understand” that Litvinenko...

The Polonium Diversion At least a dozen people have been contaminated by the rare radioactive isotope Polonium 210. The list includes Alexander Litvinenko, the ex-Lieutenant Colonel in the KGB who died from a dose of Polonium 210 in London on November 23rd; Andrei Lugovoi, a former colleague of Litvinenko in the KGB, who met with Litvinenko at the Pine bar of the Millennium Hotel in London the day he became ill, November 1st; Dmitry Lugovoi, Lugovoi’s business associate, who also attended that November 1st meetings; 7 employees of the Millennium Hotel; Mario Scaramella, an Italian security consultant, who dined with...

There is confusion over reports that a man who met former Russian spy Alexander Livtinenko has fallen into a coma with radiation poisoning. Dmitry Kovtun met Mr Livtinenko on November 1, the day it is believed he was poisoned with radioactive substance polonium-210. Russian's interfax news agency said that Mr Kovtun fell into a coma immediately after being questioned by British and Russian detectives, with doctors describing his condition as "critical". However, a lawyer for another wintess in the Litvinenko denied the reports. Andrei Romashov said: "His health right at this minute is no different from the state of his...