“I want to survive, just to show them,” Alexander Litvinenko said in an exclusive interview given just hours before he died. Too weak to move his limbs and visibly in great pain, the former Russian intelligence officer suggested that he knew he may not win his struggle against the lethal chemicals destroying his vital organs. But he said the campaign for truth would go on with or without him. “The bastards got me,” he whispered. “But they won’t get everybody.” Mr Litvinenko, 43, uttered his last defiant words to Andrei Nekrasov, a friend and film-maker, who had visited him in University College Hospital in London every day this week. Last night Mr Nekrasov described the extraordinary scenes in hospital, where one ward looks like a scene from The Godfather. “Sasha was a good-looking, physically strong and courageous man,” Mr Nekrasov told The Times. “But the figure who greeted me looked like a survivor from the Nazi concentration camps.” Moments after he saw his friend pass away, Mr Nekrasov said: “I have been through a few things in Russia and Chechnya, but this is one of the most horrible crimes I have witnessed in my my life.” “It was sadistic, slow murder. It was perpetrated by somebody incredibly cruel, incredibly heartless. It had no meaning whatsover.” Although Mr Nekrasov had seen Mr Litvinenko sometimes more than once a day, Tuesday was the last occasion on which his friend could communicate properly. Yet in his final remarks, the former spy remained defiant in his battle against President Putin and the Russian security services. He also managed a joke at his own expense, suggesting that his poisoning was proof that his campaign against the Kremlin had targeted the right people. “This is what it takes to prove one has been telling the truth,” he said. He was referring to allegations he made in a book,
, which accuses the Russian security services of causing a series of apartment block explosions in Moscow in 1999 that helped to propel Mr Putin into the presidency.
Last night in Moscow, Andrei Lugovoi, the former Kremlin bodyguard who has been accused of carrying out the poisoning, told
The Times that he was not involved and that he was prepared to travel to London to prove his innocence.
Doctors remained baffled about what Mr Litvinenko ingested on November 1, at one of two meetings with Russian contacts. Geoff Bellingan, director of critical care at University College Hospital, said that doctors were now convinced that the cause was not a heavy metal such as thallium, as originally suspected. Nor had he swallowed any mystery objects. “Radiation poisoning is also unlikely,” he said.
Andrea Sella, a chemistry expert at University College, said that it had become increasingly difficult to identify the poison. “They have to find some unspecified poison. They don’t know whether it is a single substance or a mixture.”
Mr Nekrasov revealed that Mr Litvinenko’s British citizenship had come through on the day of a service at Westminster Abbey for Anna Politkovskaya, a friend and critic of the Kremlin murdered in Moscow.
“We discussed the likelihood of another killing. Sasha warned me not to go back to Russia because it was too dangerous,” Mr Nekrasov said. “Very sadly he turned out to be the next victim, attacked in the perceived safety of Central London.”
Last night, Oleg Gordievsky, a KGB agent who defected to Britain, told Sky News: “It’s very sad news because he was a hero to Russia and a hero to Great Britain. He loved Britain as much as he loved Russia.”
An aide to Mr Putin said: “Of course it’s a human tragedy. A person was poisoned. But the accusations against the Kremiln are so incredible, so silly, that the President cannot comment.”
'Promise me you won't go back to Russia - or you will be the next'
The Russian film maker recalls his final conversations with Alexander Litvinenko this week
Audio: my friend Alexander, by Andrei Nekrasov
A polite and tactful police officer checks my name and ushers me into Ward 9 of the critical-care unit of University College Hospital. I know that I am in for a shock when I set eyes on Sasha [Alexander Litvinenko]. I know he will bear little resemblance to the man I last saw only a month ago. And I know that he will see how bewildered I am by the way he looks.
But nothing prepares me for our encounter, which instils me with a kind of child-like, tongue-tied shyness.
Once a strong, imposing, intelligence officer who took on the might of the Russian security services, he is now a pathetic figure propped up in bed wearing a hospital nightshirt with a homely design. He writhes and groans with the excruciating pain he’s suffering.
Once he made the Kremlin tremble. Now he struggles just to be able to move his poisoned limbs beneath the flimsy sheets of his hospital bed. Every new position becomes unbearable within five minutes. Nevertheless, behind the gaunt, pallid figure a light, however dimmed, continues to flicker. “I suppose this is the cost of proving that you are telling the truth,” he says, managing a painful joke at his own expense.
He was referring to the book he wrote, The FSB Blows up Russia. It exposed the involvement of his former security services colleagues in a series of apartment block bombings in Moscow in 1999 — incidents which helped propel Vladimir Putin into the presidency a year later. “I want to survive, just to show them. . . ,” he says, too weak to finish the sentence.
After only five minutes my conversation is over and I struggle to control the tears that now roll down my face.
I have visited my friend half a dozen times this week and his deterioration has been steady and dispiriting. On Sunday night he was able to converse quite normally. On Monday we chatted but he already seemed tired. On Tuesday I had my last conversation with him. By then he was already visibly weaker. On Wednesday he barely moved and it was that night that he suffered a heart attack, lost consciousness and was put on life support.
It was so different from the beautiful sunny day just a month ago, when we met at Westminster Abbey for a memorial service to Anna Politkovskaya, the murdered journalist who had exposed the State’s abuses in Chechnya and paid for her courage with her life.
Sasha left the abbey railing against the regime in Russia which lets people like our mutual friend Anna be murdered. He described his former colleagues as terrorists. “This is part of a clear pattern, an accelerating dynamic. They are eliminating people on a list,” he said. “The State has become a serial murderer.” Then he turned to me and warned me that another killing was likely to happen. We began wondering who it might be.
“Promise me you will not go back to Russia,” he said. “Otherwise you will be next.” As it turned out, the next one on the list was him. The people who order such attacks are capable of anything. Those who obey their orders commit a moral suicide. Some have become generals, rich entrepreneurs and political leaders.
Sasha was attacked with an apparently highly sophisticated poison, sadistically designed to trigger a slow, tortuous and spectacular demise. It had to be organised without the kind of support system in other countries where agents masquerade as policemen, taxi drivers, waiters or cleaners. And Sasha lived in the safety of a strong, stable democracy with tight security and ubiquitous CCTV cameras. That very day he had been made a British citizen. How did it happen here?
More extraordinary was the manner of the attack. Sasha was always aware of danger. He was careful about his movements. He checked everything he consumed. Unlike most Russians, he never drank alcohol.
Back home his former colleagues in the security services have been slow to deny their involvement. If they are shocked at all, it is that the case of one poisoned man is causing such an uproar. For them, Sasha’s torture was a proof of nothing. They are completely impervious to human pain.
In this country, though, there is a precious glimpse of hope. Despite Tony Blair’s cosy relationship with President Putin, the fate of one individual can still capture public attention and at least freedom and democracy still mean something.
In the taxi to the hospital, thedriver, having heard the address and seen my face, asked, “Are you going to see that chap who was poisoned?” A few unflattering words about President Putin followed.
As we pulled up to the hospital, she added: “I’ll pray for that Russian.” There were tears in her eyes.
Timeline of events
November 1
Litvinenko meets two Russian men at a London hotel for “cup of tea” — one a former KGB officer, Andrei Lugovoy. The other is known only as Vladimir
Later meets Italian academic Mario Scaramella at a sushi bar in Piccadilly, where he says he receives documents claiming to name Anna Politkovskaya’s killers
Several hours later complains of feeling sick and is admitted to Barnet General Hospital
November 11
Gives an interview to the BBC’s Russian Service where he describes being in “very bad shape” following a “serious poisoning”
November 17
Transferred to the University College Hospital as condition deteriorates. Placed under armed guard
November 19
Reports emerge Litvinenko has been poisoned with thallium. Alex Goldfarb, a friend, says he looks “like a ghost”. Scaramella in hiding in Rome, according a friend
November 20
Pictures released of Litivenko in hospital. Scotland Yard say they are treating the case as a suspected “deliberate poisoning” Kremlin dismisses allegations that Russia was involved
November 21
Toxicologist John Henry says Litvinenko may have been poisoned with “radioactive thallium”
Scaramella claims Litvinenko saw documents naming him (Litvinenko) as target during their meeting on November 1
November 23
Litvinenko placed on life support, reports of his skin turning yellow and family rushing to his bedside
Source: PA, Times archives
Victim's tea companion denies any involvement
A former KGB officer implicated in the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko broke his silence last night to deny any involvement, and pledged his willingness to co-operate with Scotland Yard’s investigation.
In an exclusive interview with The Times, Andrei Lugovoi confirmed that he met Mr Litvinenko on the day the Russian dissident was poisoned, but he insisted he was a business associate and had nothing to do with the attempt on Mr Litvinenko’s life.
He also said that he had an opinion on who was behind the poisoning, but refused to elaborate further.
Mr Lugovoi dismissed reports that a mysterious tall stranger named Vladimir had attended their meeting. He named the third man at the meeting in the London hotel as Dmitri Kovron, a businessman and childhood friend who was quite short.
He said that he had introduced Mr Kovron to Mr Litvinenko two weeks earlier and the three men had dined together in London’s Chinatown in the past.
Mr Lugovoi looked relaxed in the office of his security company tucked away on the second floor of a luxury central Moscow hotel as he gave his version of events. He said that he had travelled to London with his wife and three children on October 31 to attend the Champions League football match between Arsenal and CSKA Moscow.
He had been due to meet Mr Litvinenko on November 2 for a business appointment with a British company interested in entering the Russian market. But Mr Litvinenko had called him and asked to meet a day earlier to discuss the project.
Mr Lugovoi said that he and Mr Kovron met him at the hotel where they were staying. The meeting had taken place after Mr Litvinenko met his Italian contact, Mario Scaramella, and not before, as reports have suggested.
“The initiative for the meeting came from Alexander to discuss this business opportunity. He told me that he might be a bit late because he said he was meeting an Italian, but he called me after that meeting and said he would be with us in 10 minutes,” Mr Lugovoi said.
“Kovron was sitting opposite me at the table with Alexander between us. There was some tea and spirits on the table but he did not order anything and he did not drink anything.
“After a while my son, who is eight, came up to the table and I introduced him to Alexander and then we left together for the vestibule where my wife was waiting, and I introduced her to him. Then I went on to the match with my family.
“We were supposed to have a business meeting the next day but he called early in the morning and said that he was not feeling too well and suggested I go to the meeting without him.
“I called him again on November 7 and he said he was still not feeling too good and that I should call him in a week. When I called on November 13, his wife answered and passed the phone to him and his voice really sounded like a man who was unwell.”
Mr Lugovoi said that he returned to Moscow then took a business trip to the Caucasus. The first he knew of Mr Litvinenko’s poisoning was on Monday. He said that he returned to Moscow and contacted the British Embassy. He told the Embassy that he would be willing to travel to London to be interviewed by Scotland Yard.
Asked who he thought had sought to kill Mr Litvinenko, he said: “I have my own opinion about that but it is too early to talk about it and it would be a mistake to do so. This is a very delicate issue since the secret services of both Britain and Russia have become involved.” Was he afraid for his own safety? “I am not afraid but I take a very serious approach to my own security.”
Mr Lugovoi attacked Mr Litvinenko’s friend Alex Goldfarb for implicating him in the affair. He said that he had met Mr Goldfarb only a couple of times briefly. “I think he is just trying to attract attention to himself and maybe this is his way of doing it,” he said.
Spies with history as poison experts
Old habits die hard. Even if the hand of the FSB (KGB) is never proven in the case of Alexander Litvinenko, Russian intelligence services retain an unhealthy interest in developing obscure drugs and chemicals that can kill without trace.
The euphemistic-sounding Operational and Technical Directorate succeeded Kamera (the Russian for chamber), the Cold War poison factory created by Stalin, but it still has a laboratory devoted to finding new ways of killing people.
It supplies the lethal products for Department 12 of Directorate S of the SVR (the Russian foreign intelligence service), which deals with biological warfare.
Oleg Kalugin, who spent 32 years in the KGB and now lives in the West, revealed in his exposé of Russian espionage, Spymaster, that the laboratory invented poisons that agents could slip into drinks, and jellies they could rub on a person to induce a heart attack.
He said that several options were discussed when plans were made to liquidate the Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov in 1978: using poison jelly, poisoning his food or shooting him with a poison pellet. One plan was to rub poison jelly on to the handle of Markov’s car door, but this was rejected because the wrong person might have opened the door and Markov would have been warned off.
Then it was discovered that Markov was planning a holiday at a seaside resort in Italy and a plot was devised to bump into him and smear him with poison jelly on the beach. But that plan was also scrapped because the weather was cold and Markov never went swimming. So the KGB resorted to the third option: a ricin pellet shot into his leg while Markov was walking across Waterloo Bridge.
The history of Kamera, or Laboratory 12, is peppered with cases where the KGB has turned to the most mysterious and most undetectable poisons. Nikolai Khokhlov, a defector from the KGB, had radioactive thallium slipped into a cup of coffee while he was at a public reception in Germany in 1955. He survived.
Friends who had waited by Mr Litvinenko’s bedside feared that his attackers had developed a new drug to poison him. They said that experts had run through every toxin they knew of, but the doctors had never encountered such a case.
Death will cast shadow over relations with Kremlin
Alexander Litvinenko died in a London hospital last night three weeks after succumbing to a mysterious poison he said was administered by his former colleagues in Russian intelligence.
University College Hospital said that the former Russian intelligence officer died after suffering a heart attack on Wednesday night when he fell into unconsciousness and was put on a life-support machine.
His death threatens to plunge relations between Britain and Russia into crisis. The anti-terrorist squad at Scotland Yard were leading the investigation into his suspected poisoning, which is now likely to become a murder inquiry.
President Putin of Russia could be questioned in public about the death today, when he attends an EU-Russia summit in Helsinki. He may be asked to respond to allegations that members of his security services were responsible for killing Mr Litvinenko, an outspoken critic of the regime.
In his last interview, Mr Litvinenko made clear that he blamed the Kremlin for his condition but appeared determined that opposition to Mr Putin continues.
A spokesman for University College Hospital, where Mr Litvinenko died at 9.21pm, said that the medical team had done everything possible to save his life.
The spokesman added: “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.”
Scotland Yard confirmed last night that they were treating it as an unexplained death.
The 43-year-old dissident was put on a ventilator yesterday after suffering heart failure. A further battery of tests yesterday ruled out thallium as the cause and doctors have now also dismissed radiation poisoning. As speculation intensified, on both the identity of the would-be assassin and the nature of the poison, doctors were forced to deny reports that three objects had shown up in X-rays of the patient.
Geoff Bellingan, head of critical care at UCL, said that shadows seen on the X-rays were caused by “Prussian blue”, which is used to treat thallium or caesium poisoning.
One theory was that some sort of chemotherapy drug had been used against Mr Litvinenko, who was given British citizenship after he fled Moscow in 2001.
Investigators said yesterday that without further help from Mr Litvinenko in recalling who he had met and what he had eaten and drunk in the 72 hours before he fell ill, their efforts to find the assassins would be hgreatly ampered.
Boris Berezovsky, the Russian multimillionaire who blames the Kremlin for the attack and had visited Mr Litvinenko in hospital before his death, said yesterday that he hoped that counter-terrorist detectives would “interview me soon about the poisoning”.
Denis MacShane, the former Foreign and Commonwealth Office minister, said that he was alarmed by claims about a Russian plot and said that there were “too many other examples” to dismiss the allegations. But he told Channel 4 News: “I think we shouldn’t rush to judgment.”
Claims surrounding the affair were “an all-out war between some incredibly powerful, rich, very well-connected people — some of them based in London — with great international contacts, and the Putin Government,” he added.
Mr MacShane said: “It should be left to British authorities, British doctors and British policemen” to say what happened. He described some of the press coverage as ghoulish, but Mr Litvinenko’s friends said that he had been pleased with the publicity, which he believed had raised questions about Russian hit squads operating abroad.
