Spy's Last Days
Key developments in the poisoning of ex-Soviet spy Alexander Litvinenko:
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Litvinenko meets at a London hotel with another former KGB spy Andrei Lugovoy and two other men he had never met before. Later he goes to a sushi bar to meet Italian academic Mario Scaramella, who shows him an e-mail allegedly identifying emigres to Britain being targeted by Russian agents as well as the identities of those who gunned down Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in Moscow in October. Later, feels unwell and is taken to a London hospital.
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Litvinenko tells British Broadcasting Corp.'s Russian Service he is in "very bad shape" following a "serious poisoning."
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Litvinenko's condition deteriorates and he is transferred to University College Hospital in central London and placed under armed guard.
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Media report that Litvinenko may have been poisoned with thallium, once used as rat killer. Litvinenko's doctors give him a 50/50 chance of survival.
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Litvinenko is moved to intensive care and pictures of him in his hospital bed are released. Police say their counterterrorism unit is investigating. Kremlin spokesman dismisses allegations that Russian government was involved in the poisoning.
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Toxicologist John Henry says Litvinenko may have been poisoned with radioactive thallium.
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Hospital says Litvinenko's condition has deteriorated sharply.
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Litvinenko dies at 9:21 p.m. (2121 GMT). Doctors and police rule out thallium poisoning.
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Statement dictated by Litvinenko before his death blames Russian leader Vladimir Putin for his death; Putin's government denies involvement.
Britain's Health Protection Agency says the rare radioactive element polonium-210 had been found in Litvinenko's urine. The agency describes the poisoning as "an unprecedented event." Police say traces of radiation were found at a number of sites including Litvinenko's north London house, the sushi bar where he met Scaramella and the hotel he visited earlier that day.
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British government announces formal inquest into the death.
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Officials order testing for eight people who exhibit possible symptoms of contamination with radiation.
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Britain's Health Protection Agency says it will test more than three dozen staff at hospitals that treated Litvinenko for radioactive contamination.
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Authorities find small traces of radiation on board two British Airways jetliners.
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Word emerges that Mario Scaramella was hospitalized in protective police custody after tests confirmed he had been exposed to polonium-210. Scaramella was exposed to a much lower level of radiation than Litvinenko, doctors treating him said. He has shown "no symptoms of radiation poisoning," a hospital spokesman said.
Litvinenko's wife, Marina, was also "very slightly contaminated" by the radioactive substance found in her husband's body, a family friend said. She did not need medical treatment.
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Scotland Yard said it was investigating Litvinenko's death as a homicide, and traces of radiation have been found at more than a dozen sites in Britain and on jetliners that flew between London and Moscow.
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Litvinenko is laid to rest in London. The funeral is attended by a Russian tycoon, a Chechen rebel leader and other exiled Kremlin critics.
In Moscow, Russian prosecutors open their own investigation into the former KGB agent's death, and there was a disputed report that a key figure was ill with symptoms related to polonium-210.
Britain's Health Protection Agency said seven workers at the hotel where Litvinenko met two Russians on the day he fell ill have tested positive for "low levels" of polonium.
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German police say they found traces of radiation at two sites in and near Hamburg linked to Kovtun.
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President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitri Peskov insists it is "unthinkable" the Russian government could be behind any killing.
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Andrei Lugovoi criticizes media reports naming him as a suspect and denies any role in the killing.
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Scotland Yard says it has sent a file on the case to prosecutors.
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Scotland Yard meets Russian detectives investigating Litvinenko's death in London.
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Litvinenko's widow Marina launches the Litvinenko Justice Foundation to campaign for his killers to be brought to justice.
Britain's Health Protection Agency says a total of 17 people have tested positive for polonium-210 contamination at a level which may produce some small long-term health risks. Several hundred people showed minor traces of the element.
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British prosecutors accuse former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi of murder in the radioactive poisoning of fellow ex-operative Alexander Litvinenko and sought his extradition from Russia. The Russian prosecutor-general's office said it will not turn over Lugovoi to British authorities.
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Andrei Lugovoi, the chief suspect in the killing of Alexander Litvinenko, holds a news conference in Moscow and claims British intelligence services had a hand in the poisoning and that he has evidence to back the claim but would only give details to Russian investigators. Lugovoi described British accusations against him as attempt to divert attention from Litvinenko's contacts with Britain's spy services. Litvinenko, Lugovoi said, tried to recruit him to work for MI6 and gather compromising materials about Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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Credits:
AP/CBS
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