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MOSCOW - The shadowy figure who poisoned former Russian counter-intelligence agent Alexander Litvinenko in London will pay the ultimate price for his crime and die of radiation poisoning within three years, it has been claimed.
Litvinenko died in a London hospital last November after being poisoned with polonium-210, a rare and expensive radioactive chemical, in a Cold war-style plot reminiscent of a John Le Carre thriller.
But according to Oleg Gordievsky, the most senior KGB spy to have ever defected to Britain, the extraordinary story is not yet over.
Gordievsky, a close friend of Litvinenko, has suggested that the radioactive poison used to kill him will claim at least another three lives before the curtain falls on a murder mystery that has raised more questions than answers.
In an interview with the daily newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets, Gordievsky said that the mystery figure who administered the poison - supposedly in a cup of tea in a London hotel - would inevitably have received a fatal dose of polonium himself and will be dead within three years.
Two Russian businessmen, variously described as suspects or witnesses, will also lose their lives due to their involvement, he added.
The two men, Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun, held several meetings in London with Litvinenko before his death and have both been questioned in Russia in the presence of Scotland Yard.
According to Mr Gordievsky, both will be dead within five years from leukaemia.
Litvinenko's killer has yet to be named, though media reports have claimed that he was captured on CCTV cameras as he flew into Heathrow on a forged EU passport.
He has been described as tall, in his early 30s, with short, cropped black hair and distinctive central Asian features.
The Crown Prosecution Service is currently considering whether Scotland Yard has gathered enough evidence to press any charges in what has become a politically charged case between London and Moscow.
- INDEPENDENT
