British doctors will conduct radiological tests on three people who could have been subjected to radiation in London

Sunday, November 29, 2020

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British doctors will conduct radiological tests on three people who could have been subjected to radiation in London, a representative of the UK Health Protection Agency said Monday. She said the tests are part of investigations into the death early Friday of Russian ex-FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko, believed to have been poisoned by a fatal dose of polonium-210, a radioactive isotope. Litvinenko, a former Russian intelligence officer and a close associate of Russia's fugitive oligarch Boris Berezovsky, was reportedly poisoned in sushi restaurant Itsu on November 1. Traces of radiation were detected in the restaurant, in the Millennium hotel in central London which Litvinenko visited on the same day, and in his apartment in the north of the capital. About 450 people have consulted doctors since the agency issued a warning for anyone who visited the named sites on the day of the alleged poisoning. Eighteen people were told to undergo further tests. Three of them were sent to a special clinic for radiological tests as a precaution. It is so far unclear whether the three are medical staff of the hospital where Litvinenko underwent treatment. The Times newspaper reported on Monday that Berezovsky, living in London as a political emigre, and Litvinenko's wife and son, have tested negative for the radioactive isotope. The restaurant has been closed for several days for cleanup work. Restaurant personal have not reported health complaints. Litvinenko died after three weeks in hospital. He lost all his hair and was unable to eat for 18 days. His bone marrow was badly damaged, depriving his body of white blood cells. The media circulated the deathbed note of Litvinenko, who defected in 2000 and has been known as a fierce Kremlin critic, in which he accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of orchestrating his death. He made similar accusations in an English newspaper earlier. Russia has dismissed the charges as absurd, and suspiciously timed to coincide with a high-level political event in Finland involving the Russian leader.

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