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MOSCOW - A Russian linked to a probe into the radiation poisoning of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko said he was contaminated by the former agent in London weeks before Litvinenko became fatally ill.
"I have only one explanation for the presence of polonium," Dmitry Kovtun said, referring to the radioactive substance found in Litvinenko's body and subsequently detected in properties visited by Kovtun in Germany.
"It is that I brought [traces of] it back from London where I met Alexander Litvinenko on October 16, 17 and 18," Kovtun said on German Spiegel TV. "The traces stay a very long time and when you then travel around the world, it leaves traces."
Kovtun's claim conflicts with reports that British police found no radiation on a bus ticket used by Litvinenko before his meeting with Kovtun on November 1. Authorities said four people close to Kovtun had not suffered contamination, despite an earlier police report that the four had shown signs of it.
- AFP
