BERLIN (Reuters) - German police have uncovered a radioactive trail linked to what prosecutors believe could be a possible suspect in the murder of a former Russian spy in London last month. Police said on Monday a BMW used to pick up Dmitry Kovtun at Hamburg airport on October 28 had traces of polonium 210, the same radioactive substance used to poison Alexander Litvinenko.Kovtun, 41, was one of two Russians who met Litvinenko at a London hotel on November 1, the day the ex-KGB agent and outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin fell ill. "Contamination was also found in a second car, a Chrysler" used by Litvinenko, a police statement said.
| Leaky container or was Comrad Kovtun careless with the polonium? |
| Perhaps Kovtun decided to off the ex-wife |
Litvinenko died on November 23 from a lethal dose of polonium 210. In a statement released after his death, he accused Putin of killing him. Moscow has denied any involvement but Litvinenko's slow, agonising death has sparked police investigations in London, Moscow and Hamburg, scorched Russia's reputation and revived memories of Cold War revenge tales.
Kovtun is being investigated in Hamburg on suspicion of illegally handling polonium 210, a highly radioactive material that is potentially lethal when ingested, Hamburg's Chief Prosecutor Martin Koehnke told a news conference on Sunday. Koehnke said there was reason to suspect that Kovtun, who was questioned by British investigators in Moscow last week, may have been among those responsible for Litvinenko's death.
Kovtun, who has denied any part in Litvinenko's poisoning, has developed symptoms of radiation poisoning, according to Russian prosecutors, but there are conflicting reports about his exact state of health.
| "He's not quite dead, Jim" |
Hamburg police said on Monday an investigator from Scotland Yard had arrived to pursue the German angle in the investigation and was working out of the police headquarters. Separately on Monday, Russian news agency Itar-Tass reported that Andrei Lugovoy, who was also at the November 1 meeting in London with Litvinenko and Kovtun, had been questioned by Russian and British detectives.
"I was giving testimony purely as a witness," Tass quoted Lugovoy as saying on Monday. He said that Russian detectives conducted the questioning in the presence of British police colleagues. The session lasted more than three hours.
| Yeah, I'm sure the Russian detectives will conduct a full, fair independant investigation |
| "Could take awhile" |
A spokeswoman for Russia's Prosecutor-General confirmed that a Russian team would go to Britain if needed but she could not say when and for what exact purpose.
| To see what the British know, of course |
Additional:
BERLIN, December 11 (RIA Novosti) - The ex-wife of a witness in the case of a former Russian security officer, her two children and boyfriend have been hospitalized in Germany with suspected polonium-210 poisoning, the head of the investigation team in Hamburg said Monday. He said a medical examination will show if their organisms contain a dangerous concentration of the radioactive element. Authorities did not identify them by name.
Businessman Dmitry Kovtun met with defector Alexander Litvinenko around the time of his poisoning at the beginning of November. Litvinenko, an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin's administration and a close associate of fugitive oligarch Boris Berezovsky, died in a London hospital after four days in a critical condition. His body was found to contain a lethal dose of radioactive polonium-210. Kovtun is now reported to have been hospitalized with similar symptoms.
Investigators also said traces of polonium-210 have been found on Kovtun's clothes and some articles in the former wife's Hamburg apartment, as well as in other apartments in Hamburg which he visited from October 28 till November 1.
Representatives of the investigative team also said "they have almost no doubt that Dmitry Kovtun brought polonium from Moscow."
| "Here, Dmitry, take this vial and spray it on the traitor Litvinenko's food. Don't worry, there is no danger to you. Trust us." |
| After they and Andrei had been coached on what questions were to be asked by the KGB. |