Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

Lore & Background

Alexander Litvinenko was a former officer of the Russian FSB and its Soviet predecessor, the KGB, until he fled to the UK in late 2000. In 1998, he and other officers claimed they were ordered to kill businessman Boris Berezovsky, after which the Russian government persecuted him. In exile, he worked with British and Spanish intelligence, sharing information about the Russian mafia and its government connections. On 1 November 2006, Litvinenko met two former KGB officers, Andrey Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun, at the Pine Bar of the Millennium Hotel in London, where the poison was in a teapot from which he drank green tea. He also had lunch at Itsu, a sushi restaurant, with Italian nuclear expert Mario Scaramella. That evening he began vomiting and developed bloody diarrhea, was hospitalized on 3 November, and died on 23 November. The poison was identified as polonium-210 after a scientist recognized a gamma ray spike at 803 keV from the Atomic Weapons Establishment's tests. Polonium-210 emits alpha particles, which are difficult to detect with Geiger counters, explaining initial negative tests. The estimated administered activity was about 1.85 GBq (50 mCi), corresponding to about 10 micrograms, 200 times the median lethal dose.

Reader's Guide

The significance of Litvinenko's poisoning lies in its unprecedented use of polonium-210 as a lethal agent, marking the first documented case of such poisoning. The article states that British and US government officials said the use of 210Po as a poison had never been documented before, and it was probably the first time anyone was tested for its presence in the body. The event led to worldwide media coverage due to Litvinenko's public deathbed accusations that President Putin was behind his poisoning, and his allegations about FSB misdeeds. Subsequent British investigations caused serious diplomatic difficulties between the British and Russian governments. In September 2021, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia was responsible for the assassination, ordering damages to Litvinenko's wife. The Court found beyond reasonable doubt that Lugovoy and Kovtun killed Litvinenko, consistent with a 2016 UK inquiry which concluded the murder was 'probably approved by Mr. [Nikolai] Patrushev, then head of the FSB, and also by President Putin.' The legacy includes heightened tensions between the UK and Russia, and the case remains a landmark in the use of radioactive substances for assassination.

Did You Know?

• Litvinenko was the first confirmed victim of lethal polonium-210-induced acute radiation syndrome.
• The poison was administered in a teapot at the Millennium Hotel's Pine Bar from which Litvinenko drank green tea.
• Initial tests for thallium poisoning were considered, but symptoms were inconsistent with thallium toxicity.