Alexander Litvinenko dies of poison~Did Putan call for the hit ? PART 1

update.......
Traces of Radioactive Material Found in Sushi Restaurant, Home of Dead Spy
LONDON — Traces of the same rare, highly radioactive material that killed a former KGB agent were found Friday in the sushi restaurant and hotel he had visited, and in his home, setting off a frantic investigation to see if anyone else may have been contaminated by the "tiny nuclear bomb."

The rare radioactive element Polonium-210 was detected in Alexander Litvinenko's urine after he died Thursday in a London hospital. The Itsu sushi restaurant in London's Piccadilly and parts of the Millennium Hotel in Grosvenor Square were closed as investigators scoured for evidence in a death that rocked the government leaders in London and Moscow.

Litvinenko, in a statement written before his death and read Friday, claimed Russian President Vladimir Putin of being behind his murder, a charge Putin denied.

Britain's Health Protection Agency, meanwhile, said the finding of polonium-210 in the dead former spy's body was "an unprecedented event" and Britain's government convened a crisis committee in response.

In Moscow, pro-Kremlin lawmakers pointed the finger at exiled Russian dissidents, claiming the death was part of a plot to discredit the Kremlin.

Russian exile Leonid Nevzelin said in Israel that Litvinenko's death could be linked to investigations into charges laid against ex-shareholders and former owners of the Yukos oil company.

Chemical experts, meanwhile, told the Times of London that a fatal dose of polonium-210 could only be produced artificially, by a particle accelerator or nuclear reactor.

"This is not some random killing. This is not a tool chosen by a group of amateurs. These people had some serious resources behind them," Dr Andrea Sella, a chemistry professor at University College London, said.

"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.

Keir said polonium poisoning was extremely difficult to detect because the type of particles it emits — alpha particles — do not penetrate outer layers of the body. It would also not set off airport radiation detectors, experts said.

Scientists claimed small amounts of polonium-210 — but not enough to kill someone — were used legitimately in Britain for industrial purposes and easily available.

To be used to kill, however, "much larger amounts are required and this would have to be manmade ... from a particle accelerator or a nuclear reactor," said Medical Research Council expert Dudley Goodhead.

Investigators theorized Friday night how the radioactive substance could have been ingested by Litvinenko, with Health Protection Agency officials offering a theory that it could have been sprayed on him and inhaled.

Litvinenko, meanwhile, literally spoke from the grave as a friend, Alex Goldfarb, read a statement the former Moscow agent wrote just before his death, in which he accuses Putin of poisoning him.

"You have shown yourself to have no respect for life, liberty or any civilized value. You have shown yourself to be unworthy of your office, to be unworthy of the trust of civilized men and women," Goldfarb read.

• Click here to read Litvinkenko's full statement.

Litvinenko, a fierce critic of the Russian government, had suffered heart failure and was heavily sedated as medical stuff struggled to determine what had made the 43-year-old critically ill.

"You may succeed in silencing one man but the howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Mr. Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life," Litvinenko said in his statement.

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

Putin brushed off accusations Friday that he was responsible, saying that the Litvinenko's death was a tragedy but that he didn't see proof that it was a "violent death."

"It's extremely regrettable that such a tragic event as death is being used for political provocations," he said. "I think our British colleagues realize 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 fanning political scandals which have no grounds."

Litvinenko's father, Walter, who had flown to London from Russia to be with his dying son, accused Putin of waging a polished public relations campaign, telling reporters that his son was killed on the orders of the Russian government "by a little, tiny nuclear bomb, so small that you couldn't see it". He went on to warn that the "people who killed him build big nuclear bombs and missiles and ... should not be trusted," the Guardian newspaper reported.

British health officials, meanwhile, scoured the neighborhood where Litvinenko is believed to have ingested the radioactive poison.

Health Protection Agency chief executive, Pat Troop, said that the high level found in the dead spy's urine indicated "he would either have to eaten it, inhaled it or taken it in through a wound."

"We know he had a major dose," she said.

"I've been in radiation sciences for 30-odd years and I'm not aware of any such incident," said Roger Cox, director of the agency's center for radiation, chemicals and environmental hazards.

Britain's home secretary John Reid, the country's top law-and-order official, said Litvinenkco's death was linked to a radioactive substance in his body.

He said experts had been called in to search for "residual radioactive material" at a number of locations as police investigate the cause of Litvinenko's death, and it was "linked to the presence of a radioactive substance in his body."

"As part of this investigation, the police have called in expert assistance to search for any residual radioactive material at a number of locations," Reid said.




Alexander Litvinenko, former Russian spy, before (left) and after poisoning.
'THE BASTARDS GOT ME, THEY WON'T GET US ALL'...

Poisoned Ex-Russian Spy Dies
Fierce Critic Of Russian Government Suffered Rapid Deterioration In Health
(AP) LONDON A former Russian spy who said he had been poisoned died Thursday night at a London hospital, following a mysterious and rapid decline that left doctors unable to pinpoint the cause of death, officials said.

Alexander Litvinenko, a fierce critic of the Russian government, had suffered heart failure and was heavily sedated as medical stuff struggled to determine what had made the 43-year-old critically ill.

"The matter is being investigated as an unexplained death," London's Metropolitan police said in a statement.

Litvinenko had accused his Kremlin bosses of corruption, and fled Russia six years ago - but hardly stayed silent, reports CBS News correspondent Richard Roth. After last month's murder of muckraking journalist Anna Politkovskaya, Litvinenko pointed a very public finger at a fellow former spy: Vladmir Putin.

The former spy said he believed he had been poisoned on Nov. 1, while investigating the slaying of another Kremlin detractor -- investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya. His hair fell out, his throat became swollen and his immune and nervous systems were severely damaged, he said.

Just hours before he lost consciousness, Litvinenko said in an interview with The Times newspaper of London that he had been silenced.

"I want to survive, just to show them," he said in the interview was published in Friday's edition of the paper, copies of which were available late Thursday. They "got me, but they won't get everybody."

Doctors at London's University College Hospital said tests had virtually ruled out poisoning by thallium and radiation -- toxins once considered possible culprits behind the poisoning.

"The medical team at the hospital did everything possible to save his life," hospital spokesman Jim Down said, confirming the Russian's death Thursday night.

"Every avenue was explored to establish the cause of his condition, and the matter is now an ongoing investigation being dealt with by detectives," he said.

Dr. Geoff Bellingan, the hospital's director of critical care, said extensive tests had failed to uncover what had caused Litvinenko to fall ill.

Earlier in the day, hospital officials said Litvinenko was deteriorating rapidly and family members and friends rushed to his bedside.

Family friend, Alex Goldfarb, joined Litvinenko's wife Marina, his son Anatoli and the former agent's father at the hospital.

"He went into a cardiac failure overnight and the hospital put him on artificial heart support," Goldfarb said. "He's on the ventilator, he's getting artificial resuscitation."

It's pure fantasy, says the Kremlin, to think Moscow was involved in Litvinenko's poisoning. But in what novelist John le Carre once called the ambiguity that was part of the Cold War, that sort of speculation is not just based on fiction, Roth reports.

Thirty years ago, Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov was murdered on a London bridge -- stabbed with an umbrella tipped with the poison ricin. And two years ago, Kremlin critic Viktor Yushchenko was poisoned -- and disfigured -- while campaigning for the presidency of the Ukraine.

Anti-terrorist police were investigating the poisoning, which friends and dissidents allege was carried out at the behest of the Russian government. Litvinenko sought asylum in Britain in 2000, and has been a relentless critic of the Kremlin and the Russian security services ever since.

On Wednesday, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, the SVR, issued its strongest denial yet that it was involved in any assassination attempt. "Litvinenko is not the kind of person for whose sake we would spoil bilateral relations," SVR spokesman Sergei Ivanov said, according to the Interfax news agency. "It is absolutely not in our interests to be engaged in such activity."

Litvinenko worked both for the KGB and for a successor, the Federal Security Service. In 1998, he publicly accused his superiors of ordering him to kill Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky -- now exiled in Britain -- and a year later spent nine months in jail on charges of abuse of office, for which he was later acquitted, and which prompted his move to London.

On the day he first felt ill, Litvinenko said he had two meetings. In the morning, he met with an unidentified Russian and with Andrei Lugovoy, a former KGB colleague and bodyguard to one-time Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar at a London hotel. Later, he dined with Italian security expert Mario Scaramella to discuss the October murder of Politkovskaya.

Scaramella told reporters in Rome on Tuesday that he had traveled to meet Litvinenko to discuss an e-mail he received from a source naming the killers of Politkovskaya, who was gunned down Oct. 7 at her Moscow apartment building, and outlining that he and Litvinenko were on a hit list.

Goldfarb said that he had a photocopy of the four-page e-mail and confirmed that it did read like the hit list described by Scaramella.

"What's in there confirms what Scaramella said. It lists several targets for assassination, among them are Politkovskaya, Litvinenko, Scaramella, Berezovsky and others," he said. But he refused to say who compiled the document, saying that it could jeopardize the police investigation into the poisoning.

After visiting the hospital on Thursday, Berezovsky told the AP that British police have yet to speak to him, but hoped they would be in contact over the next two days. The police declined to comment about whether they had the e-mail.

Goldfarb said Wednesday that there was nothing out of the ordinary in Litvinenko's meeting with Lugovoy, who also worked as bodyguard to Berezovsky, the most high profile Russian exile in London.

Litvinenko refused to implicate any of the people he met on the day he said he believed he was poisoned.
Alex Goldfarb (right) and Andrei Nekvasov, close friends of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, are interviewed by the media outside the University College Hospital, in central London, Nov. 22, 2006.



Litvinenko with Anna Politkovskaya

Vladimir Putin


Poisoned Russian Spy Dies
Updated: 00:43, Friday November 24, 2006

Former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko has died in hospital after being poisoned.

A spokesman for University College Hospital said the ex-KGB agent has died after his condition had been deteriorating throughout the day.

The Metropolitan Police are investigating his death as "an unexplained death".

Mr Litvinenko's supporters have accused the Russian government of poisoning the 43-year-old, who had been given asylum and citizenship in Britain after fleeing Russia.

They said he was killed because he was investigating the murder last month of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot dead near her Moscow apartment.

The Kremlin has said the accusation is "sheer nonsense".


Litvinenko with Anna Politkovskaya Mr Litvinenko fell ill after meeting a contact, an Italian journalist, in a sushi restaurant in central London.

Dramatic photographs released this week showed him lying in intensive care. His hair had fallen out and his complexion was jaundiced.

Last night he suffered a heart attack and doctors said his condition had worsened. Friends and relatives were said to be rushing to his bedside fearing the worst.

Doctors still do not know what caused his illness, although they have said he was poisoned.

Initial reports suggested he had been poisoned with thallium, or with a radioactive material, but doctors have now said this was not the case.


Vladimir Putin His friend Oleg Gordievsky, a former high-ranking KGB agent who defected to Britain, said Mr Litvinenko had been killed by two Russian secret agents who poisoned his tea during a meeting at a London hotel.

Mr Gordievsky told Sky News: "He was fighting against the evil forces in Russia, against the authorities which are depressing democracy and liberal freedoms in Russia."

Professor Mario Scaramella, the Italian who met Mr Litvinenko for lunch before he fell ill, said he had shown him documents suggesting that both men were on a hit-list.

Mr Litvinenko, an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin, was probing the murder of Ms Politkovskaya, who had become famous for exposing Russian atrocities in Chechnya.

Thirteen journalists have been murdered in Russia since Mr Putin came to power in 2000. None of the cases has been solved.

Two years ago the Russian government denied any part in the poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko, the pro-Western presidential candidate in neighbouring Ukraine. He won the presidency after his pro-Russian rival was accused of trying to rig the elections.

Statement From Hospital
Updated: 23:44, Thursday November 23, 2006
Here is the statement released by University College Hospital, where Alexander Litvinenko was being treated up until his death.

"We are sorry to announce that Alexander Litvinenko died at University College Hospital at 9.21pm on 23.11.06.

"He was seriously ill when he was admitted to UCH on Friday November 17, and the medical team at the hospital did everything possible to save his life.


"On Sunday evening he was transferred to the intensive care unit where he could be closely monitored and receive any critical support he needed.

"Every avenue was explored to establish the cause of his condition and the matter is now an ongoing investigation being dealt with by detectives from New Scotland Yard.

"Because of this we will not be commenting any further on this matter. Our thoughts are with Mr Litvinenko's family."

I Met The Poisoned Ex-Spy
Updated: 23:54, Thursday November 23, 2006

As the Russian ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko was still fighting for his life in a London hospital, Sky News' Mark Stone recalled their recent meeting:

Exactly a month ago I was sitting at this computer replying to an email from Alexander Litvinenko.

Now, as I write, the former KGB agent is lying in an intensive care unit at a London hospital - the victim, it seems, of a deliberate poison attempt.

I had met Mr Litvinenko at a lecture discussing the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya at London's Frontline Club on October 19 - days before he was poisoned.

It would have been hard to miss him: "You ask me 'Who killed her?'" he abruptly told the audience.

"I can answer you directly. It is Mr Putin, the president of the Russian Federation that has killed her. Putin killed her."

There was no doubt in his voice. It was some accusation. A former employee of the FSB (Russian Secret Service) had just directly accused his president of murder.


He didn't seem concerned either: "Because I am here, I feel I should speak up and tell you what I know. I don't want to hide anything and I am happy for the media to cover this. As soon as the regime in Russia changes, we'll know the facts," he continued.

Did it almost cost him his life?

Mr Litvinenko had been friends with Anna Politkovskaya for several years. They had met several times in London before she was shot dead in a lift at her Moscow apartment block on October 7 this year.

At their meetings, Ms Politkovskaya expressed concern over her safety to Mr Litvinenko. She was, after all, a vehement critic of Putin.

At the Frontline lecture, Mr Litvinenko recalled one meeting: "She asked me about the methods of the FSB. She said that she had received threats from the Kremlin. One of our last meetings she asked me - 'can they kill me'?"


Sky News' Mark Stone Her death was not big news in Russia. Elsewhere though, it was making the headlines. Mr Litvinenko began to investigate the murder. He said he knew that Putin's agents were responsible - what he needed though was the evidence.

His last meeting before he became ill was at a Piccadilly Sushi bar on November 1. His contact was an Italian named Mario Scaramella who was investigating KGB penetration of Italian politics.

Mr Scaramella claimed to have information on Ms Politkovskaya's murder.

The police investigation now focuses on Mr Litvinenko's movements before his lunch at the sushi bar. Who did he meet and did they know about his meeting with the Italian?

Mr Litvinenko concluded his explosive comments at the Frontline Club by saying: "I am not trying to hide anything. You can directly quote me. I used to work on other murders and got evidence from them. The Kremlin arrested me, searched my flat and destroyed the evidence."

This time, it seems, arrests and house searches were swapped for poison. The question now is - by whom?

The Kremlin's response: "Claims originating in London (about Kremlin involvement in Mr Litvinenko's poisoning) are bordering on raving madness and are not worthy of the Kremlin's official reaction."

Before leaving the Frontline Club, I took Mr Litvinenko's contact details. We said we would speak soon. I hope we can.

Sky News' Mark Stone

Poison Plots
Updated: 23:32, Thu Nov 23



Exiled Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko has died in hospital after being poisoned.

He fell ill after dining at a central London restaurant, although supporters say he was poisoned before going there.

Poison Plots
Updated: 23:32, Thu Nov 23



The former colonel in the FSB - the Soviet KGB's successor - had been a critic of Russian President Vladmir Putin and was granted political asylum in the UK in 2001.

Poison Plots
Updated: 23:32, Thu Nov 23



Before he fell ill, he was investigating the murder of Russian reporter Anna Politkovskaya (centre).
Poison Plots
Updated: 23:32, Thu Nov 23



But Mr Litvineko is not the first to have been allegedly spiked with toxins.
Poison Plots
Updated: 23:32, Thu Nov 23



Ukranian President Viktor Yushchenko fell ill while dining with security agents as he ran for election.

He had been poisoned with dioxin.
Poison Plots
Updated: 23:32, Thu Nov 23



After the illness, his face became pale, heavily disfigured, bloated and pockmarked.

He believed it was the work of the Russian-backed government later accused of rigging elections.

Medical experts said Yushchenko's disfiguring appeared to be 'chloracne', commonly associated with dioxin poisoning.

Poison Plots
Updated: 23:32, Thu Nov 23



Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov was said to have been stabbed with a poisoned-tipped umbrella on London's Waterloo Bridge in 1978.

It allegedly shot a ricin-laced pellet into his leg.

He died three days later.

Poison Plots
Updated: 23:32, Thu Nov 23



The funeral of Russian banker Ivan Kivelidi in Moscow.

The 46-year-old had far-reaching influence in both political and business circles but died in 1995 after what appeared to be a poisoning.

Spy Turned Campaigner
Updated: 00:07, Friday November 24, 2006

As a former secret agent, political dissident and author, Alexander Litvinenko was a man with a life straight from a spy novel.

As a former lieutenant colonel in the Russian secret service, he had been aware he could be in danger ever since defecting to Britain.

He knew that as an outspoken and high-profile critic of President Vladimir Putin, his life and those of his family - a wife and teenage son - were at risk.

But the 43-year-old took measures to protect himself, keeping his suburban address secret.

He also changed his phone number regularly and met contacts at busy, public locations.

But he still ended up apparently being poisoned - by an as yet unidentified substance - and later dying.

Shortly before his illness, Mr Litvinenko was investigating the murder of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, another opponent of the Kremlin.

He fell ill after meeting a contact at a London restaurant, who handed him documents about the Politkovskaya case - and showed him documents suggesting both of them were on a hit-list.


Anna Politkovskaya

Mr Litvinenko eventually died in London's University College Hospital after fighting for his life for more than two weeks.

The road that led him from Cold War secret serviceman to his death from suspected poisoning began more than 20 years ago.

He first became a security agent under the Soviet-era KGB, in the late 1980s, after transferring from the Russian military.

It is now known as the FSB, the Federal Security Service, specialising in organised crime and counter terrorism.

A decade later he made a life-changing decision to voice concerns about deep-rooted corruption in the FSB.

He publicly exposed an alleged plot to assassinate the then powerful tycoon Boris Berezovsky, who also lives in exile in London.

It was around this time he fell out with Mr Putin, another former KGB officer who was then head of the FSB, and was sacked, arrested and charged with corruption.

Eventually he was acquitted and fled to the UK where he successfully claimed asylum.


Devastation in Chechnya

From his new position of relative safety, he became a relentless critic of Mr Putin's regime, co-authoring several books.

One, Blowing Up Russia: Terror From Within, accused Russian agents of co-ordinating a series of apartment block bombings in 1999 that left more than 300 dead.

Moscow blamed the attacks on Chechen rebels. They are believed to have helped swing public opinion behind Russia's renewed war in the breakaway state. Journalist Anna Politkovskaya's articles about Russian atrocities in Chechnya made her a target for hardliners.

Possibly financially supported by billionaire Mr Berezovsky, Mr Litvinenko also appeared in public alongside other opponents of Mr Putin.

He denounced the war in Chechnya as a crime, called for Russian troops to be withdrawn and said compensation should be paid to Chechens.

Despite this, he remained a patriot.

In an interview four years ago, he said: "I believe Russia will rise again and that I will manage to return again to the motherland and Moscow."

After his death, former high-ranking KGB agent Oleg Gordievsky, who defected to Britain, said his friend Mr Litvinenko was "proud" to have achieved British citizenship - just weeks before his death.

Mr Gordievsky told Sky News: "He was a hero for Britain and for Russia."

'My Meal With Poison Spy'
Updated: 23:52, Thursday November 23, 2006

The mystery Italian contact of poisoned former spy Alexander Litvinenko came out of hiding to give his version of events at the London sushi bar.

Speaking before Mr Litvinenko's death, Professor Mario Scaramella, 38, who describes himself as a defence consultant, gave a news conference in Rome to discuss his friend's illness. The Italian was surrounded by four bodyguards as he arrived.

Journalists had been summoned by SMS texts.

Prof Scaramella revealed how he had not eaten at the sushi bar and how Mr Litvinenko helped himself to fish from a buffet and was brought soup by a waiter - while he had only water to drink.

He stressed he had nothing to do with the poisoning and blamed the Russian secret services.

Professor Scaramella said the original arrangements for the meeting had been by email and it was arranged that they would meet on November 1 in central London.

"I was in London to meet Mr Litvinenko because I wanted to discuss with him some alarming news. The information I had received was very disturbing and contained details of plots against Russians both in Italy and Great Britain.

"I called him and we arranged to meet as we always do in Piccadilly Circus. I have met him several times. He is a very good source of mine and has contacts in Russia.

"I was with him for maybe 30-45 minutes. We were downstairs and there were no other people there.

"I had already had lunch so I had nothing to eat - and had a glass of water.

"Mr Litvinenko had some fish from a buffet and some soup was brought to us. He personally took his food from the buffet. I paid for the bill, as I recall it was about £17."

Professor Scaramella added: "I told him that I had received some very worrying and disturbing information. I had been given a list of names and lots of facts from a contact.

"The information was a list of people - it was a hit list and on that list was his name, my name and Paolo Guzzanti (head of the Italian commission investigating KGB activities in Italy).

"It was unbelievable and there were also names of people in Britain on it. I asked him to make a call to his people in Russia to evaluate it.

"Mr Litvinenko told me not to worry about it. The arrangement was that I would call him later that night or the following morning.


"When I called him back the next morning his wife said that he was very sick but she laughed it off saying half of London was ill."

Professor Scaramella also described how Mr Litvinkeno had mentioned he had been at a meeting beforehand.

The Italian explained: "He said to me that he was in London to see some people in the morning and that he would be free to see me in the afternoon.

"When he arrived he did not mention who he met but I understand the authorities are investigating the possibility he was poisoned at this meeting.

"The information I received was in two emails and I passed that information the British authorities to the intelligence services and the police through diplomatic channels.

"The information was disturbingly serious and these people are very dangerous. I was warned to be very careful as these people are well organised.

"The information regarded plots to do something both in Italy and Great Britain. There were several Russian people in Britain on that list as well as Litvinenko, Mr Guzzanti and myself."

He refused to elaborate on where the list had come from other than to say it came "from someone who lives out of Russia".

When asked if he was scared and what steps he had taken to increase his own personal security Professor Scaramella said: "I don't want to answer that question. These people are very dangerous. We are talking about people involved in the murder of (Russian journalist) Anna Politkovskaya."

He also described how there was a strong connection between the Russian Mafia and the former KGB as well as their replacement intelligence service the FSB and SVR.

Professor Scaramella also revealed how Mr Litvinenko had provided information which led to the arrest of six Ukranians who were smuggling arms between Russia and Italy for an attempted hit.

He added: "About a year ago Litvinenko contacted me to say he had details about arms being smuggled to Italy.

"With that information I contacted the Italian intelligence services and he also spoke to them. It led to the arrest of six Ukranians near Teramo who were found with arms.

"They had hidden powerful grenades - strong enough to take out a tank or an armoured car - inside two hollowed out Bibles.

"The information was that these grenades were intended for a hitman from the former Eastern bloc who was living in the Naples area."

When asked directly what he thought of the attempt on Mr Litvinenko's life Professor Scaramella said: "It was a political assassination."
~~~~~~~~~~~
Spy Accuses Putin From the GraveIn statement prepared before his death, former Russian spy says President Vladimir Putin was behind his death

Dead Former Russian Spy Charges Vladimir Putin of Poisoning Him
Friday, November 24, 2006

LONDON — In a charge from the grave, a former Russian spy who died Thursday night at a London hospital accused Russian president Vladimir Putin of poisoning him in a statement prepared before his death and read Friday.

"You have shown yourself to have no respect for life, liberty or any civilized value. You have shown yourself to be unworthy of your office, to be unworthy of the trust of civilized men and women," Alexander Litvinenko said in the statement read aloud by his friends.

"You have shown yourself to be unworthy of your office, to be unworthy of the trust of civilized men and women," read is friend Alex Goldfarb.

"You may succeed in silencing one man but the howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Mr. 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.

Putin's government and the Russian security services denied involvement.

"A person's death is always a tragedy," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in Helsinki, Finland, where Putin is attending a summit with European Union leaders.

"It's now up to the law enforcement agencies of Britain, the country where Litvinenko lived, to investigate the death," Peskov said. He declined to say whether Russia would help with the investigation.

Litvinenko, a fierce critic of the Russian government, had suffered heart failure and was heavily sedated as medical stuff struggled to determine what had made the 43-year-old critically ill.

"The matter is being investigated as an unexplained death," London's Metropolitan police said in a statement.

The former spy said he believed he had been poisoned on Nov. 1, while investigating the slaying of another Kremlin detractor — investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya. His hair fell out, his throat became swollen and his immune and nervous systems were severely damaged, he said.

Just hours before he lost consciousness, Litvinenko said in an interview with The Times newspaper of London that he had been silenced.

"I want to survive, just to show them," he said in the interview was published in Friday's edition of the paper, copies of which were available late Thursday. They "got me, but they won't get everybody."

Doctors at London's University College Hospital said tests had virtually ruled out poisoning by thallium and radiation — toxins once considered possible culprits behind the poisoning.

"The medical team at the hospital did everything possible to save his life," hospital spokesman Jim Down said, confirming the Russian's death Thursday night.

"Every avenue was explored to establish the cause of his condition, and the matter is now an ongoing investigation being dealt with by detectives," he said.

Dr. Geoff Bellingan, the hospital's director of critical care, said extensive tests had failed to uncover what had caused Litvinenko to fall ill.

Earlier in the day, hospital officials said Litvinenko was deteriorating rapidly and family members and friends rushed to his bedside.

Family friend, Alex Goldfarb, joined Litvinenko's wife Marina, his son Anatoli and the former agent's father at the hospital.

"He went into a cardiac failure overnight and the hospital put him on artificial heart support," Goldfarb said. "He's on the ventilator, he's getting artificial resuscitation."

Anti-terrorist police were investigating the poisoning, which friends and dissidents allege was carried out at the behest of the Russian government. Litvinenko sought asylum in Britain in 2000, and has been a relentless critic of the Kremlin and the Russian security services ever since.

On Wednesday, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, the SVR, issued its strongest denial yet that it was involved in any assassination attempt. "Litvinenko is not the kind of person for whose sake we would spoil bilateral relations," SVR spokesman Sergei Ivanov said, according to the Interfax news agency. "It is absolutely not in our interests to be engaged in such activity."

Litvinenko worked both for the KGB and for a successor, the Federal Security Service. In 1998, he publicly accused his superiors of ordering him to kill Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky — now exiled in Britain — and a year later spent nine months in jail on charges of abuse of office, for which he was later acquitted, and which prompted his move to London.

On the day he first felt ill, Litvinenko said he had two meetings. In the morning, he met with an unidentified Russian and with Andrei Lugovoy, a former KGB colleague and bodyguard to one-time Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar at a London hotel. Later, he dined with Italian security expert Mario Scaramella to discuss the October murder of Politkovskaya.

Scaramella told reporters in Rome on Tuesday that he had traveled to meet Litvinenko to discuss an e-mail he received from a source naming the killers of Politkovskaya, who was gunned down Oct. 7 at her Moscow apartment building, and outlining that he and Litvinenko were on a hit list.

Goldfarb said that he had a photocopy of the four-page e-mail and confirmed that it did read like the hit list described by Scaramella.

"What's in there confirms what Scaramella said. It lists several targets for assassination, among them are Politkovskaya, Litvinenko, Scaramella, Berezovsky and others," he said. But he refused to say who compiled the document, saying that it could jeopardize the police investigation into the poisoning.

After visiting the hospital on Thursday, Berezovsky told the AP that British police have yet to speak to him, but hoped they would be in contact over the next two days. The police declined to comment about whether they had the e-mail.

Goldfarb said Wednesday that there was nothing out of the ordinary in Litvinenko's meeting with Lugovoy, who also worked as bodyguard to Berezovsky, the most high profile Russian exile in London.

Litvinenko refused to implicate any of the people he met on the day he said he believed he was poisoned.