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Spy: Polonium cost millions
18/12/2006 11:38 - (SA)
London - British detectives believe that the radioactive substance used to kill former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko cost in excess of $10m, The Times reported in an early edition of its Monday newspaper.
According to the newspaper, preliminary results from the post-mortem on Litvinenko's body have shown that he was given more than ten times the lethal dose of polonium-210, large quantities of which were found in his urine.
Litvinenko fell ill on November 1, and died on November 23. Several of his friends have blamed the Kremlin for the murder, but Russia has repeatedly denied that it had any involvement in the ex-spy's death.
"You can't buy this much off the internet or steal it from a laboratory without raising an alarm so the only two plausible explanations for the source are that it was obtained from a nuclear reactor or very well connected black market smugglers," an unidentified British security source told the daily.
United Nuclear Scientific Supplies, based in New Mexico and one of the few companies allowed to sell polonium-210 over the internet, told The Times that it would take at least 15 000 units of the isotope to kill someone.
With each unit costing $69, that would mean that it would cost more than $10m to deliver the fatal dose, the newspaper said.
The Times also said that British detectives currently in Moscow continuing their investigation are due to return to Britain in the coming week.
According to The Times, citing unnamed security sources, Russian officials refused to ask questions of Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun - both of whom met with Litvinenko on the day he fell ill - which British detectives wanted answered.
They have not complained publicly, the newspaper added, because of the importance of the case to diplomatic relations between Britain and Russia.
When contacted by AFP, a spokesperson for London's Metropolitan Police declined to comment on the investigation.
- AFP
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