Poisoned ex-spy accuses Putin from beyond grave
Fri Nov 24, 2006 2:58pm ET
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Text [+] By Peter Graff

LONDON (Reuters) - A former KGB spy accused Vladimir Putin of his
murder on Friday in a statement read out after his death, which British
health officials said had been caused by a rare radioactive substance
found in his body.

The Russian president brushed off the charge as "political
provocation", but London said it had raised the "serious matter" of
Alexander Litvinenko's death with Moscow and asked it to give British
police any information it had.

Britain's top-level cabinet team, know as COBRA, which gathers for
civil emergencies, met three times to discuss Litvinenko's death, a
sign of escalating worry over the affair.

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British health officials said a rare radioactive isotope, polonium 210,
had been discovered in the body of the 43-year-old Kremlin critic who
died overnight in a London hospital.

"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," Litvinenko said in a statement read out by friends
outside the hospital where he died.

"May God forgive you for what you have done, not only to me but to
beloved Russia and its people."

Police were trying to work out how the radioactive poison entered the
body of Litvinenko who wasted away over three weeks, losing all his
hair.

Police said traces of Polonium 210 had been found at a sushi bar where
Litvinenko met an Italian academic, a hotel where he met another former
Russian agent, both on the day he fell ill, and at his north London
home. Continued...

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