Russian Poisonings: The Case of Alexander Litvinenko (PART 2)

In PART 1 we looked at Litvinenko's early life, how his military and KGB career started, and how the changing politics in the aftermath of the collapse of the USSR affected the newly formed FSB and finances of Russia's top officials. We left off with Alexander Litvinenko's request of political asylum to an astonished police officer in Heathrow Airport. What did the police officer do next? 

LIFE IN ENGLAND

In London, at the airport, the befuddled policeman escorted Alexander Litvinenko and his family, along with Alex Goldfarb to the immigration officials. According to his wife, Litvinenko was interviewed at length by the immigration officials on the day of their arrival. Their main goal was to verify whether he really was who he said, a KGB dissident. It was all a bit fantastical for the British immigration, who had heard all sorts of claims in their career. At the same time, Alex Goldfarb engaged a solicitor on their behalf, George Menzies, who helped Alexander Litvinenko to prepare their asylum documents. In May 2001, their asylum was granted by the home office. 

Alexander and Anatoly Litvinenko with some English constables

The family was also given the option to change their names. This was to further anonymize them and keep them safer. They happily accepted that option and their new, more English sounding names were: Marina as Mary Anne Carter, Alexander as Edwin Redwald Carter, and Anatoly as Anthony Carter. In 2002, they were granted passports in their new names and were able to travel for a holiday. They opted for Spain. The place where Marina went the first time with their son when they decided to flee Russia. 

Four years after receiving asylum, the Litvinenkos were granted British citizenship on 13 October 2006. Marina explained how happy Alexander was to be a British citizen. It made him feel safer to know that he was an English national and he felt that now his family had a good future, especially his son, Anatoly. He could grown up as an English boy and be brought up, and protected, in this new culture. 

While the family was setting up their new life, Boris Berezovsky was supporting them financially. He provided them with a rental home in Kensington, London. Berezovsky also paid for Anatoly to go to a private school, and employed Litvinenko and was paying him funds. Gradually, those funds became less as the time went. There are now conflicting reports about this situation. It is said that this led to contention between the two men, but some sources say that this was a natural progression as Litvinenko was seeking to become more independent and on his own feet. 

After two years of living in Kensington, the family moved to a home in Muswell Hill. This was also owned by Berezovsky, and they were not paying rent, but were paying all the bills. 

The Litvinenko home at Muswell Hill, London
during the police investigation

The first two years in England was spent at language school for both Marina and Alexander. Her English was progressing well, and she managed to secure a job teaching at a dance school, and also teaching at a language school for Russian children. Litvinenko's English was remarkably worse than his wife's. He was not apt in learning new languages, and was always seeking to speak to other Russians so he could converse in his mother tongue. By 2006, at the time of his poisoning, he did improve considerably, but he still required an interpreter when he was speaking to the Metropolitan Police at the hospital. 

To supplement his income, Litvinenko was also working with the British Intelligence Services providing information on the Russian organised crime, and its presence in the UK, and whatever other knowledge he could garner, or had, from his sources and his past. Marina Litvinenko said that they would pay him 2000 pounds every month in his account, from an unnamed bank transfer. This work started when they arrived in UK. It is clearly distincted that Litvinenko was working for them, Marina was not sure whether it was MI5 or MI6, on a consulting basis and not as an employed agent. 

Litvinenko developed some interesting friendships in Britain. However, the two most prominent ones were with Vladimir Bukovsky and Akhmed Zakayev. Bukovsky was another Russian dissident who had spent a long time incarcerated in Soviet Russia before being released to the West in an exchange for the general secretary of the Chilean Communist Party in 1976. The two men had a very intense friendship. Bukovsky testified at the Litvinenko enquiry, held by the British Government, that Alexander would call him ''20, 30 times a day... including at night.'' Litvinenko called him a ''guru'' and ''greatest contact he had''. 

Vladimir Bukovsky 

The other contact, Akhmed Zakayev also arrived in London claiming asylum and was supported by Berezovsky. He arrived in England in 2002. He chose a house close to the Litvinenko dwelling in Muswell Hill, where he moved in with his family. The two families became very close. Zakayev was from Chechnya, and he was a massive influence to Litvinenko, who became progressively devoted to the Chechen cause as a a result of this friendship. He was very public about this support. On his deathbed, Litvinenko decided to convert to Islam, which was arranged by Zakayev. 

Akhmed Zakayev

POISONING AND DEATH

The evening of 1st November 2006 was uneventful. Alexander Litvinenko spent the day meeting old acquaintances and discussing business and then, in the evening, he came home and ate a specially prepared meal by his wife. It was the anniversary of their arrival in England, and also the first anniversary of the family being British citizens. Marina said her husband ate ''with good appetite'' and they turned in early for the evening as Litvinenko would have an early morning of running errands and more meetings the next day. 

In the early hours between 1 and 2 November, he started to throw up and this went on the whole night. Litvinenko moved to rest in the spare room, as not to disturb his wife. When she checked on him the next morning, Alexander looked extremely tired and was still vomiting continuously. During the day, he did not get better so Marina decided to contact a local Russian doctor. He suggested that Litvinenko should drink some salt and mineral solution, to keep up his hydration. However, he just vomited this up to. Nothing would stay in his stomach. 

Marina decided to call an ambulance, in the night between 2nd and 3rd November, as she was extremely concerned about the state of her husband. The paramedics turned up to the house, and examined Alexander, but determined that maybe he was suffering from some kind of stomach bug or flu. They advised that he should stay home and rest. In the day time of the 3rd November, Litvinenko was still feeling ill, and now he was in pain and having bloody diarrhoea. This alarmed his wife, and she begged the Russian doctor to come and check up on her husband. He was also of the opinion that he was ill from a stomach bug or flu, but said that he should be taken to hospital straight away. The ambulance was called again. They took him to Barnet Hospital, just after 4pm on the same day. 

Barnet Hospital in Chipping Barnet, England

Litvinenko spent 14 days in hospital. Dr Andres Virchis, gave evidence that Alexander presented with the above-mentioned symptoms to the hospital and they determined that he was dehydrated from suffering with gastroenteritis. They started to give him strong antibiotics. His blood tests determined that he had a normal count of platelets, but the red and white blood cell count was high. 

During the next few days, doctors were baffled as Litvinenko was not responding to the antibiotics, and his red and white blood cells count was falling. Marina suggested to the doctor that maybe her husband could have been poisoned. The doctors initially didn't take this into consideration, buy they ran toxicological tests and the Poisons Unit at Guy's Hospital was working on the case. 

Guy's Hospital in London, England 

Dr Virchis was bemused when he realised that the symptoms that Litvinenko was displaying were similar to someone who had been subjected to radiation due to intense chemotherapy, akin to a leukemia patient before surgery. They tested radioactive sources of poisoning by having a Geiger counter, but no radioactive emissions were found. This was on the 15th of November. 

Litvinenko's condition further deteriorated to the point that the doctor was considering a bone marrow transplant due to the fact that his red and white blood cells weren't replenishing and his blood was not presenting normally and functioning. 

At some point in the treatment, they determined that maybe Litvinenko was poisoned by thallium and he was being treated with prussian blue. Alex Goldfarb was in touch with a world renowned toxicologist, Professor John Henry, who was also of the same opinion about the thallium. He visited Litvinenko on 18th November to examine him. 

Thallium 

Litvinenko was not showing signs of improving, his heart was now displaying an irregular heartbeat. He had a raised temperature and continued to throw up and have stomach pain. He was transferred to the ICU on 19 November, despite the security concerns voiced by the police. 

The next day, the doctor was very worried about the falling blood platelet count, raising temperature and failing bone marrow. They arranged for Alexander to have a blood transfusion. The thallium in his blood was high earlier, although it wasn't elevated enough to indicate that he was poisoned. Litvinenko's symptoms did not fit with thallium poisoning. He was showing signs of bone marrow failure, mucous membrane damage and hair loss. There was no signs of damage to the nerve endings and quite low levels of thallium. His physician was concerned that he was not showing any of the classic signs of thallium poisoning. 

Next, Litvinenko had renal failure and his blood had to be artificially filtered to remove impurities. This was normal for people with high temperature, infection and not responding to antibiotics. Another physician, Dr Nathwani, observed that it was normal for other organs to start deteriorating. This was especially common for patients with bone marrow failure.  What was surprising, however, was that his liver was now stopping to work. 

Alexander Litvinenko on his death bed

Further tests were done, and samples were sent to the Guy's Hospital poisons unit. The doctors there were concerned that Litvinenko's condition was not behaving like expected for his diagnosis. The doctors suggested that ''Berlin blue'' be administered still, for a period of 7 to 10 days, or until his urinary levels return to normal. It was also advised that other options or diagnoses be considered as thallium poisoning did not seem like the main reason for his illness now. 

The next tip from Dr Dargan, at Guy's poisons unit, was for Dr Nathwani to test if radioisotopes were the reason. Dr Dargan provided Dr Nathwani the phone number to the Atomic Weapon's Establishment (AWE). Only a few substances could cause the type of bone marrow failure and isolated mucositis. 

On 21 November, Litvinenko suffered 2 cardiac arrests. The doctors were successful in resuscitating him. On 22 November, the Prussian blue treatment was stopped as it was clear he had no thallium positioning. At this time it was also when the doctors told reporters that maybe Litvinenko was poisoned with radioactive thallium. It was then asked by police that doctors confirm whether he was being affected by radioactivity, so samples of his blood and urine was taken. 

The samples collected were processed overnight and in the morning the results were give. Polonium was found present. This was initially thought to be a mistake caused by the plastic bottle that the samples have been stored in. 

The Detective Superintendent on the case, Clive Timmons, requested that a ''living post mortem'' be done on Litvinenko. This was to eliminate 4 of the 5 causes investigated as a cause for his condition, one such cause was an internal source of radiation. A further one litre of his urine was taken and sampled, and this also revealed that there was polonium in his body. 

Polonium 210

In the early evening of 23 November 2001, Litvinenko had another cardiac arrest. His third and final one. James Down, an ICU consultant, tried to resuscitate him, but it became clear quickly that Litvinenko was not responding to treatment. All attempts to resuscitate him were terminated. At 09.21pm, he was pronounced lifeless. Cause of death was multiple organ failure, including progressive heart failure. 

Effects of polonium on the body and organs

POLICE INTERVIEWS

During the first 3 days, Litvinenko held interviews with the police officers at length. He was adamant from the first interview that he had been poisoned. He suspected he was poisoned between 1 and 5th November by possibly 3 suspects: Mario Scaramella, Andrei Lugovoy, or Dmitri Kovtun. He was cunning enough to have made public the fact that him and Scaramella were meeting, but deliberately didn't say anything about meeting Lugovoy or Kovtun. He thought that if they were confident that they were not suspects, they would return to London, and thereby be arrested if found guilty. 

He also told police that he suspected that Scaramella poisoned him, and didn't say anything about the other two for a short while at the beginning of the investigation. 

A few days later, Litvinenko asserted that despite the uncertainty of the poisoners, there was only one person who could have authorized this on behalf of the Russian Secret Services and on foreign soil: ''That person is the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin.''

In the last part in this fascinating series, we will look at the police investigation, all the suspects, the timeline and events,  and what the British government thought about the Russians killing British citizens on British territory. 

President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin

Resources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Litvinenko#Early_life_and_career
• https://time.com/4188756/who-was-alexander-litvinenko/
• https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/19/alexander-litvinenko-the-man-who-solved-his-own-murder
• https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-19647226
• https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/493860/The-Litvinenko-Inquiry-H-C-695-web.pdf
• https://jamestown.org/program/fsb-officers-claim-they-were-ordered-to-kill-berezovsky/
• A Very Expensive Poison, written by Luke Harding, published 2016 by Guardian News and Media