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LONDON - British police have made a breakthrough and identified the man they believe poisoned Alexander Litvinenko, a friend of the murdered former Russian spy told The Times newspaper.
Police tracked down the mystery man, who was introduced to Litvinenko and his associates as "Vladislav", using details that the ex-agent recounted on his deathbed.
The suspected killer travelled to London on a forged European Union passport and slipped the radioactive isotope polonium-210 into Litvinenko's tea, according to Oleg Gordievsky, a friend of the defector to Britain, who has worked closely with detectives on the murder investigation.
Litvinenko's death in London on November 23, in agonising pain after being administered a huge dose of polonium, caused a storm of media speculation and strained ties between Britain and Russia.
"This man is believed to have used a Lithuanian or Slovak passport," Gordievsky, a former KGB Soviet agent, told The Times.
"He did not check into any hotel in London using the name or that passport, and he left the country using another EU passport."
Police sources told The Times it had not previously been revealed that Litvinenko visited a fourth-floor room at the Millennium Hotel in London to discuss a business deal.
He went to the room with Russian businessman Dimitri Kovtun and Andrei Lugovoy, another former Russian agent.
The trio were joined in the room by a mystery man who was introduced as "Vladislav".
"Vladislav was described as someone who could help Mr Litvinenko win a lucrative contract with a Moscow-based private security company," Gordievsky said.
"Sasha (Litvinenko) remembered the man making him a cup of tea.
"His belief is that the water from the kettle was only lukewarm and that the polonium-210 was added, which heated the drink through radiation so he had a hot cup of tea. The poison would have showed up in a cold drink."
London's Metropolitan Police refused to comment on the report.
Lugovoy and Kovtun deny any part in Litvinenko's death.
- AFP
