Reuters
Saturday, November 25, 2006

Police were studying security camera footage on Saturday after finding radioactive traces at three London locations visited by an ex-KGB spy who accused Vladimir Putin of his murder in a deathbed statement.

As government officials gathered for another emergency meeting, known as COBRA, health officials urged people who had visited any of the places to contact them for advice.

Alexander Litvinenko died on Thursday night after a three-week illness that saw his hair fall out, his body waste away and his organs slowly fail.
In a statement read out after his death, he accused the Russian president of what would be the Kremlin's first political assassination in the West since the Cold War.

"You may succeed in silencing one man. But a howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Mr Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life," he said.

But some suggested the death was part of a plot to discredit the Kremlin, noting that Litvinenko's drawn-out death would have given him time to tell any damaging secrets he was harbouring.

Police said they were continuing an intensive probe.

"We will trace possible witnesses, examine Mr Litvinenko's movements at relevant times ... There will also be an extensive examination of CCTV (closed-circuit television) footage," said Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke.

Traces of Polonium 210 were found at Litvinenko's home and at two other London locations he visited on the day he fell ill -- a hotel where he met another ex-KGB spy visiting from Moscow, and a sushi restaurant where he met an Italian academic.

The Health Protection Agency urged members of the public who may have been at the locations -- now cordoned off -- to call a telephone hotline for advice.

""We are trying to pin down anybody who might have been in contact with any of the radioactivity," said Pat Troop, HPA chief executive. "He may have left some on a surface. If they take it off that surface and put it all into their mouths, that's when they might be at risk," she told BBC television.

"POLITICAL PROVOCATION"

The Foreign Office said it had asked Moscow to pass on any information that might help the police inquiry.

Putin shrugged off Litvinenko's charge.

"It is a great pity that even something as tragic as a man's death is being used for political provocation," he said.

European politicians urged Putin to help the investigation and warned of potentially grave consequences for Russia.

"Should it turn out that the Russian secret services were actually involved in the murder of Litvinenko, it would be a very serious matter," said Martin Schulz, Socialist leader in the European Parliament.

One analyst suggested that Putin himself was the target of the plot. "The net effect of this is to damage Russia. Who wishes to damage Russian interests? The exiled oligarchy in London, who ... have run a smear campaign against the Russia government," Eric Kraus, a Russian commentator, told Sky News.

Russian daily newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda speculated: "Such a chain of events plays right into the hands of those who would wish to compromise Russia in the world arena and to cause its leadership to fall out with Western leaders."

Alexander Goldfarb, Russian dissident and close friend of Litvinenko, responded: "This smacks to me of a classic KGB disinformation campaign to cover up their tracks."

The use of the rare radioactive isotope -- made only in a nuclear reactor -- suggested to experts only a sophisticated group, if not a powerful state, was behind the crime.

"This is not a tool chosen by a group of amateurs. These people had some serious resources behind them," Dr Andrea Sella, chemistry lecturer at University College London, told Reuters.