Newsmax
Tuesday, December 5, 2006

British officials believe the poison death of former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko was OK'd by the Russian Federal Security Service.

According to the Times of London, British security sources are convinced that the Federal Security Service (FSB) was behind a "highly sophisticated plot” and probably had former agents carry out the operation in London.

"We know how the FSB operates abroad and, based on the circumstances behind the death of Mr. Litvinenko, the FSB has to be the prime suspect,” a source told the Times.

Intelligence officials told the Times that only officials such as FSB agents would have been able to obtain sufficent amounts of polonium-210, the radioactive substance used to fatally poison Litvinenko.

A senior police source told the Times that the method used to kill the 43-year-old dissident was intended to send a message to his friends and allies.

"It’s such a bad way to die, they must have known,” the source said. "The sheer organisation involved could only have been managed by professionals adept at operating internationally.”

Nine Scotland Yard detectives are in Moscow in an effort to find Litvinenko's killers.