The Assassination of Alexander Litvineko

It's a real life James Bond story. A tale of international intrigue. A teacup full of poison and one dead spy. Alexander Litvineko was a former KGB agent and later an agent of the FSB which was the successor of the KGB in Russia. After 12 years in service to his country, Litvineko experienced a crisis of conscience. He became an outspoken opponent of the Putin and the intelligence agency. In a 1998 press conference he accused his bosses of the FSB publicly, including Vladimir Putin, of ordering the assassination of Russian businessmen for their own financial gain. This did not sit well with his bosses as one might imagine and for all intents and purposes that was the end of his career. Putin went on to become president of Russia in 1999. Litvineko fled to England in 2000. Then on the night of November 1st 2006, Litvineko fell ill. On November 3rd he went to the hospital.

He began losing a lot of weight and losing his hair. He was simply deteriorating before the doctors eyes. He continued to get worse and had all the symptoms of a poisoning but they didn't know how to treat it. When scientists finally did determine the type of poison the diagnosis was a virtual death sentence. The former spy was poisoned with a highly toxic and rare chemical element, radio active Polonium 210. Outside of a laboratory and a few industrial settings you don't expect to find it in the normal course of business. Litvineko died on November 21st. Scotland yard began investigating his death as a murder. 27 locations in and around London were found to be contaminated with the dangerous substance. They found traces of Polonium 210 in restaurants in and around London and in a taxi cab. The exposure had spread to enough degree that you could track it. And then, they found the smoking gun.

Investigators determined that Litvineko met with three Russian men at the Millennium Hotel on November 1st. A teapot at the hotel produced a radio active reading that was off the charts. Was Litvineko killed by friends of Putin to silence his criticism or perhaps the murder committed by Putin's enemies with the intention of discrediting Putin's administration? Alexander Litvineko publicly accused Vladimir Putin of being responsible for his poisoning and ultimate death while he was on his deathbed. British authorities have a suspect, a former KGB body guard, named Andre Lukavoy. He met with Litvineko, along with two others, that night at the Millennium Hotel. He did cooperate a little bit with Scotland Yard, then suddenly left the country and went back to Russia. UK Prosecutors asked Russia to extradite Lukavoy to England to stand trial but Russia refused. Instead they said they would investigate the incident themselves.

However, no one really expects them to do anything about it because the last thing Russia would want would be have one of their own convicted of murder. The body of Alexander Litvineko was buried in a lead lined coffin in a London Cemetery. The former spy's assassin remains at large.