A Very Political Assassination Our World

death almost went undiscovered, so who killed him and why? We

investigate the polonium trail and reveal how it led to President

Putin's front door. Alexander Litvinenko,

caught on CCTV, on his way to a meeting with two former Russian

spies at the up-market This was a killing with

a very clear purpose. And it was a killing

with some state involvement. It was perhaps the most audacious

murder on British soil ever, There had never been another

investigation into the murder of a British subject in London

by means of radioactivity. This is the inside story

of what was supposed to be Death by radioactive

poison on British streets. One day people will know

the truth about him. Alexander Litvinenko

was the Russian spy who turned A man steeped in the shady,

sometimes disreputable He used to work for the KGB

at a higher level, but was granted Six years later, just after he had

become a British citizen, he met two former colleagues

from Russia's intelligence world in the Pine Bar at

the Millennium Hotel. He left the meeting

seemingly perfectly healthy. Two days later he was admitted

to his local hospital vomiting A colleague came into my office

and explained that in hospital in north London was a man

who was telling quite He was saying that he was a former

member of the Russian Intelligence Agency, and that he believed he had

been poisoned by some The former KGB man was transferred

to University College London in central London for intensive care

with a police escort. The Metropolitan Police,

they said it was important for him So this was now an investigation

into an attempted murder. Alexander Litvinenko's white blood

cell count was catastrophically low. He was brought to us with symptoms

and signs of bone marrow failure. He started to lose his hair,

it was exactly what I was saying, why, why can nobody

explain what has happened to him? Specialist consultants were baffled

but his life was ebbing away. His vital organs were being

destroyed in a sequential pattern. And that was followed very rapidly

by his kidneys and then his heart. We could see that we were losing

the battle right in front We were in the unusual position

of having what you could describe as a living murder victim telling us

about how it was that he came to believe that he was

meeting his death. So there were police by his bedside,

but also government scientists So, the scene really

was a mixture of individuals. The police officers were there,

but there were some people who probably weren't police

officers, but were possibly members Medically, doctors still did not

know what had made him so ill. A couple of days after he was

admitted we had a brainstorming session with various medical

colleagues, pharmacists, toxicologists, and colleagues

from Public Health England. As a last resort, the highly unusual

decision was made to send blood and urine samples here

to the government's top-secret nuclear research centre

at Aldermaston where Britain's nuclear bomb

had been developed. A confidential source with close

knowledge of these events told me a fascinating story about how

the poison was finally discovered. At Aldermaston they first use

a technique called spectroscopy Professor Ian Shipsey,

one of the world's leading We take the blood and

place it into a vessel. We attach the vessel to a vacuum

pump to remove all of the air. In that vessel is a sensitive camera

that can detect radiation And the output of the camera

produces the trace that you see. The location of the peak identifies

the radioactive isotope present. The team at Aldermaston was looking

for gamma radiation. They noticed a small spike

in the trace, but they didn't By chance a scientist who worked

on a nuclear bomb programme overheard the scientists

discussing the results. He immediately spotted this

was the gamma ray spike of polonium 210, which used to be used

to make nuclear weapons. And leads to instant organ failure

throughout the body. Does it surprise you that he managed

to recognise that gamma spike? For most people it would be hard

to do, but with the right experience it is like recognising

an old friend's face in a crowd. The realisation that

Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned by polonium was described

to me as a eureka moment. The implication for public health

was severe, polonium 210 I understand that night

the government's public-health body was warned about a possible

radiological contamination incident The Health Protection Agency

scrambled its emergency team. 20 scientists worked

through the night. The following day, Aldermaston

confirmed it was poisoning Alexander Litvinenko died

in hospital the very same day. You know, it is very important

for the relationship. Even if it was a lot

of medical stuff around, I was very pleased I was allowed

to see him for the last minute. If he had died a week earlier it

simply would have been recorded I've been a consultant

for over 20 years. It is possible that the cause

of death would not have been found would have been put down

as a mystery illness? Marina Litvinenko was told

it was not safe to go home. They said, Marina, we don't even

know how to tell it to you, because it has never been

in our practice to manage It is a radioactive material

that killed a person. They said, it may not be a safe

place for you to stay in the house. And at the same time

I had lost everything. The government's civil

contingencies committee Cobra met in Downing Street four times

in the week after his death. The Health and Safety Executive

feared causing panic More than 600 people

were traced and tested This was an unprecedented

emergency for the government. The scale of concern

is only now becoming clear. We were finding polonium in aircraft

on which people had been involved And of course, the public

were understandably very concerned, My sources told me that they even

tested the London Underground. Stations and trains had

found traces of polonium. This remained secret at the time

to avoid public panic. At the peak of its investigation,

the Met had more than 100 detectives Step away from the front

of the premises, please, The obvious line of enquiry

is you follow the trail and that is exactly what this

investigation was, trials of polonium across

London and beyond. Well over 40 sites of

radioactive contamination. The two former Russian spies who met

Alexander Litvinenko at the Millennium Hotel before

he fell ill were quickly identified Here, Andrei Lugovoi is caught

on the Hotel security camera on his way to the toilet,

hand in pocket. 15 minutes later Dmitry Kovtun does

the same, spending three minutes The bathroom sinks, the hand dryer,

and one toilet door were later found to have some of the heaviest

contamination of all. To my knowledge there had never been

another investigation into the murder of a British subject

in London by means of radioactivity. Almost at every stage

of this enquiry. But the polonium trail actually

starts two weeks early on the 16th of October when Alexander Litvinenko

first met both prime suspects. This is thought to be the day

of a first murder attempt. The sushi bar, where they had

lunch, was contaminated. They spent the night

at the Best Western Hotel in Shaftesbury Avenue,

very heavy contamination was found Lugovoi was back in London

on the 25th of October, his room at the Sheraton Park Lane

was heavily contaminated. Three days later he flew

from Moscow to London. Polonium was found on his

British Airways flight. And Kovtun flew from Moscow

to Hamburg on the 1st of November. Again, polonium was found

in the city by German police. Polonium trails suggests there

were three separate murder attempts. In May 2007 the then Director

of Public Prosecutions, Ken McDonald, recommended

prosecution for murder. It was a grotesque murder conducted

on the streets of London in the most public way leading to a lingering

and very public death. This was not some random

killing, this was a killing And it was a killing

with some state involved. The public enquiry into

Alexander Litvinenko's murder, that has been sitting in London

for the past six months, heard strong scientific

evidence that it was. Professor Norman Dalby

is a physicist who gave evidence The secret city of Sarov is the only

place where the polonium could have There is no other reasonable

way of making it. That implies some degree

of state control. its transportation,

it is regulated by the state, and its use is regulated

by the state. But why would Russia want him dead

six years after he had fled Evidence heard in the public

enquiry, and conversations with private sources make it

clear, he developed some As far as the Russian

state was concerned, Alexander Litvinenko

was an agent who had gone rogue. At this press conference in Moscow

he accused Russian security forces of corruption and of

murdering their opponents. His face was even used for target

practice by special forces. He spent almost a year in prison

and on his release his friend, Yuri Felshtinsky, asked a former KGB

general if he would be safe. He told me that Alexander Litvinenko

committed treason, and this treason And there is no way

Alexander Litvinenko There is no way that the crime

Alexander Litvinenko committed And that if the ever saw him

himself, personally, if he ever meet him again,

he will kill him, he would kill him He fled with his family

to the UK and set himself up Operating in the sometimes murky

world of Mayfair companies wanting The public enquiry heard how

he began helping Britain's secret He had a handler called Martin,

and he used to meet him Alexander Litvinenko was also

helping the Spanish tackle powerful figures from the Russian

Mafia living in Spain. Prosecutor Jose Grinda has spent 20

years investigating organised crime. In a rare broadcast

interview he confirmed that Litvinenko was helping

to investigate members of the Saint Petersburg

Mafia, the Tambov gang. TRANSLATION: Why did we need

Alexander Litvinenko? They had been targeted before

by Alexander Litvinenko. We obtained documents in Spain that

reveal how the Spanish were closing TRANSLATION: We have confirmed links

between Russian criminals and members of the Russian

administration and the Russian Prosecutions Office,

and the Russian Army, and even members of

the Russian government. But his work with Western

intelligence didn't get him killed. I was told by a source

with knowledge of inside thinking here at MI6 that Alexander

Litvinenko was murdered on the orders of the Russian state

because he had crossed two The smouldering remains

of 64 apartments. Torn to shreds by

a massive explosion. This was the first red line,

the Moscow apartment Vladimir Putin blamed

the Chechnyans, calling it Alexander Litvinenko co-wrote a book

called Blowing Up Russia. Sensationally it accused the Russian

secret service of bombing Moscow When the government was quick enough

to accuse Chechnyans to start the second Chechnyan war,

to start to bomb Grozny, Nobody was actually expecting

to see it this way. But the reaction of the population

was, we now have to have a strong Shortly before he was killed

Alexander Litvinenko made some allegations on the Internet claiming

that Putin was a paedophile. Largely based on these pictures

of the president kissing a boy. These were wild allegations

that Putin denied. I did accept him for what he did,

with all of his personality. Russia continues to deny any

involvement in the murder and is protecting

the prime suspects. In 2007 Lugovoi was made

a member of the parliament, giving him immunity

from prosecution. He lives a very public life

and he appears to be admired by some I have to say that isn't

an admiration we shared. And just this year, President Putin

awarded him with a medal Lugovoi now has his own TV show,

wait for it, called "Traitors". He may feel hounded,

but Marina Litvinenko wants justice. You kill my husband you have to be

responsible for this. So what about the other prime

suspect, Dmitry Kovtun, well, he was supposed to give

evidence to the enquiry at the Royal Courts of Justice

via video link from Russia. But after keeping the enquiry

waiting for three months he pulled out at the last minute saying it

would jeopardise an ongoing Following his no-show the enquiry

will start to hear evidence in closed sessions from

the intelligence services. The ramifications for the Russian

state will be exceptionally serious. I think it will alter the way that

millions and millions of people around the world view Mr Putin

and the Russian regime. We asked the Kremlin, Lugovoi,

and Kovtun for a response, but received no reply

from any of them. Given the weight of the open

evidence, and what we know of the secret assessment

is being made by MI6, it is hard to see how the enquiry

chairman will not implicate It is now clear that the murder

of Alexander Litvinenko heralded a dangerous new era

for relations with the West. The Environment Agency says

Britain's flood defences need a complete rethink following

the widespread flooding in parts