AP
 
London, Nov 25: A former KGB agent turned Kremlin critic who blamed a "barbaric and ruthless" Russian President Vladimir Putin for his fatal poisoning had a toxic radioactive substance in his body, the British government said on Friday November 24.

In the statement dictated from his deathbed, Alexander Litvinenko accused the Russian leader of having "no respect for life, liberty or any civilised value." In his first public remarks on the allegations, Putin said he deplored the former spy's death but called the statement a political provocation.

The Health Protection Agency said the radioactive element polonium-210, which is extremely hard to detect, had been found in Litvinenko's urine.

Polonium-210 occurs naturally and is present in the environment at very low concentrations, but can represent a radiation hazard if ingested.

"Only a very, very small amount of polonium would need to be ingested to be fatal, but that depends on how pure the polonium is," said Dr Mike Keir, a radiation protection adviser at the Royal Victoria Infirmary.

The agency's chief executive, Pat Troop, said that the high level indicated Litvinenko "would either have to have eaten it, inhaled it or taken it in through a wound."

"We know he had a major dose," she said.
 
Earlier, Home Secretary John Reid said Litvinenko's death on Thursday night was "linked to the presence of a radioactive substance in his body."

At a meeting on Friday with Russian Ambassador Yury Fedotov at the Foreign Office, British diplomats asked Moscow to provide all assistance necessary to a police inquiry into the death, government officials said. Putin has pledged to cooperate.

Peter Clarke, head of London's anti-terrorist police, said officers and military radiation experts were searching several locations in London. Traces of radiation had been found at Litvinenko's north London house, a sushi bar where he met a contact November 1, the day he fell ill and a hotel he visited earlier that day, he said.

The restaurant and part of the hotel were closed during a police search, with officers removing materials in heavy metal boxes.

Clarke said extensive tests by forensic toxicologists on behalf of police — which began before Litvinenko's death — had on Friday confirmed the presence of Polonium-210.

"There is no risk to the public unless they came into close contact with the men or their meals," said Katherine Lewis, a spokeswoman for the Health Protection Agency.

Litvinenko, a vociferous critic of the Russian government, suffered heart failure late Thursday after days in intensive care at London's University College Hospital battling a poison that had attacked his bone marrow and destroyed his immune system.

"You may succeed in silencing me but that silence comes at a price. You have shown yourself to be as barbaric and ruthless as your most hostile critics have claimed," Litvinenko said in the statement read by his friend and spokesman Alex Goldfarb. The former spy said "the howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life."

Goldfarb said Litvinenko had dictated the statement before he lost consciousness on Tuesday, and signed it in the presence of his wife, Marina.

Litvinenko's father, Walter, said his son "fought this regime and this regime got him."

"It was an excruciating death and he was taking it as a real man," Walter Litvinenko said.

The Russian government has strongly denied involvement, and Putin told reporters at a European Union summit Friday in Helsinki, Finland, that British medical documents did not show "that it was a result of violence, this is not a violent death, so there is no ground for speculations of this kind."

Putin spoke before the British government announced the findings about the presence of polonium-210 in Litvinenko's urine.

Putin also extended his condolences to Litvinenko's family.

"A death of a man is always a tragedy and I deplore this," he said.

Putin said the fact that Litvinenko's statement was released only after his death showed it was a "provocation."

"It's extremely regrettable that such a tragic event as death is being used for political provocations," he said.

"I think our British colleagues realise the measure of their responsibility for security of citizens living on their territory, including Russian citizens, no matter what their political views are. I hope that they won't help fan political scandals which have no grounds."

Litvinenko told police that he believed he had been poisoned while investigating the slaying of crusading journalist Anna Politkovskaya. His hair fell out, his throat became swollen, and his immune and nervous systems were severely damaged.

He was transferred from a north London hospital to University College Hospital on November 17 when his condition deteriorated.

Doctors treating him acknowledged they could not explain his rapid decline. They discounted earlier theories that the 43-year-old father of three had been poisoned with the toxic metal thallium and cast doubt on an alternative diagnosis of a radioactive substance.

The hospital said on Friday it could not comment further because the case was being investigated by police. London's Metropolitan Police said it was treating the case as an "unexplained death" — but not, yet, a murder.

Litvinenko's friends had little doubt about who was to blame.