The man accused of poisoning Putin critic Alexander Litvinvenko has suggested ex Russian spy Sergei Skripal may have simply ‘eaten something wrong’ before he collapsed.
Skripal was rushed to hospital after being found on a bench outside a shopping centre in Salisbury on Sunday along with a 33-year-old woman, who is also fighting for her life.
The case of the former spy, who is critically ill after being exposed to an ‘unknown substance’, will invite comparisons to the fate of Litvinenko – a Putin critic who was killed by polonium-laced tea in a Mayfair hotel in 2006.
Andrei Lugovoi – one of the prime suspects in the Litvinvenko case who is now a Russian MP – today hit out at those ‘trying to find some conspiracy trace’ over Sunday’s incident, adding: ‘Why poisoned? Maybe he has eaten something wrong.’
But last night Litvinenko’s widow Marina questioned whether the mystery substance was radioactive and claimed there were similarities with her late husband’s case.
Alexander Litvinenko died after two agents slipped radioactive polonium 210 into his tea pot at a Mayfair hotel in central London. This photo, taken on November 20, 2006, shows Litvinenko three days before his death and was released by his family
Sergei Skripal was rushed to hospital after being found on a bench outside a shopping centre in Salisbury on Sunday along with a 33-year-old woman, who is also fighting for her life
Litvinenko’s widow Marina (pictured) questioned whether the mystery substance was radioactive and claimed there were similarities with her late husband’s case
Andrei Lugovoi (pictured) – one of the prime suspects in the Litvinvenko case who is now a Russian MP – today hit out at those ‘trying to find some conspiracy trace’, adding: ‘Why poisoned? Maybe he has eaten something wrong.’
She told the Telegraph: ‘It looks similar to what happened to my husband but we need more information. We need to know the substance. Was it radioactive?’
Marina Litvinenko also called for political asylum seekers to be ‘completely safe’ in Britain after Skripal, a former Russian double agent, was left critically ill in Sunday’s incident.
Marina Litvinenko said the safety and security of people like Skripal had to be taken seriously.
Former KGB agent Mr Litvinenko died in London in 2006, three weeks after drinking tea laced with radioactive polonium-210.
A public inquiry concluded in 2016 that the killing of Mr Litvinenko, an outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin, had ‘probably’ been carried out with the approval of the Russian president.
His widow told the BBC’s World Tonight: ‘We need to be sure people receiving political asylum here are completely safe.
‘And the state which is providing this asylum needs to be more serious, particularly now, after what has happened to Sergei (Skripal)…But it just shows how we need to take it seriously, all of these people asking for security and for safety in the UK.’
An inquiry found two Russian men – Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun – had deliberately poisoned Litvinenko by putting polonium-210 into his drink, leading to an agonising death.
It said the use of the radioactive substance – which could only have come from a nuclear reactor – was a ‘strong indicator’ of state involvement and that the two men had probably been acting under the direction of the FSB.
The Millennium Hotel, Grovsvenor Square, London, where Litvinenko is though to have been poisoned. It is pictured in a file photo
Possible motives included Litvinenko’s work for British intelligence agencies, his criticism of the FSB, and his association with other Russian dissidents, while it said there was also a ‘personal dimension’ to the antagonism between him and Putin.
International arrest warrants issued for Mr Lugovoi and Mr Kovtun remain in force although Russia continues to refuse their extradition.
Commenting on the Skripal case today, Mr Lugovoi said: ‘I have a feeling that this is a kind of propagandist journalist’s hoax or planned provocation, and I doubt that there is anything serious behind it.
‘Skripal could not be interesting for the special services. Russia doesn’t chase defectors.
‘And he was not even a defector, he was exchanged. I cannot exclude that all this noise, unfolding now, will be used by forces which are not friendly to Russia.
‘This kind of stupidity needs to be clarified by UK law enforcement, if there was any impact on Skripal’s organism.
‘Why poisoned? Maybe he has eaten something wrong. They immediately try to find some conspiracy trace.’
The Kremlin said today it was ready to cooperate if Britain asks it for help investigating Sunday’s incident.
‘Nobody has approached us with such a request,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with reporters, when asked if the British authorities had been in touch seeking help. ‘Moscow is always open for cooperation.’
When asked to respond to British media speculation that Russia had poisoned Skripal, Peskov said: ‘It didn’t take them long.’
Calling the incident ‘a tragic situation,’ he said the Kremlin did not have information about what had happened.
‘We don’t have information about what the reason (for the incident) could be, what this person was doing, and what it could be linked to,’ said Peskov.
He said he did not know whether Skripal was still formally a Russian national.
In a statement to mark the 10th anniversary of Litvinenko’s death, his widow Marina said her husband – who she called Sasha – had been an ‘extraordinary man’ whose courage in speaking out against the Russian security service, the FSB, had left an enduring legacy.
While she acknowledged Mr Putin had refused to accept the inquiry’s findings, she said it remained open for other world leaders to take action against the Russian state and that she hoped her struggle to find the truth had not been in vain.
Police and paramedics discovered a man and woman in a critical condition in Salisbury on Sunday
The pair were taken to hospital after they collapsed inside The Maltings shopping centre after coming into contact with an unknown substance. Pictured, emergency crews at the centre
Emergency services found Sergei Skripal and a woman slumped over a bench at The Maltings shopping centre before they were transported to Salisbury District Hospital, where a major incident was declared on Monday
‘It has taken 10 long years for the truth to be established and for Sasha’s dying words that President Putin was responsible for his death to be proved to be true,’ she said.
‘I know that Mr Putin’s Russia does not accept the findings of the British public inquiry and will continue to deny the truth in the face of overwhelming evidence.
‘But those findings are now part of history and the rest of the world understands the difference between truth and propaganda. And that is what matters to me.
‘What action world leaders will take against the ever vengeful Russian state in these dramatic times remains to be seen. I hope and pray that my struggle has not been in vain.’
Last year the scandal took a new twist when Scotland Yard detectives who investigated the Litvinenko case revealed they too had been poisoned by the Russians in an extraordinary attempt to thwart the inquiry.
The inquiry found two Russian men – Andrei Lugovoi (pictured left at a Moscow press conference 2007) and Dmitri Kovtun (right, in Moscow, 2006) – had deliberately poisoned Litvinenko
Detective Inspector Brian Tarpey, who flew to Moscow to investigate, says: ‘I remember one evening my officer [a colleague who travelled with him] was complaining of stomach cramp and not being very well.
‘Next morning I accompanied him to the general prosecutor’s office. We were offered tea. I had no hesitation in accepting.
‘After we left, I started to feel a little bit uncomfortable. Not wanting to put too fine a point on it, I had the s***s.
‘I have no doubt in my mind that someone poisoned us with something like gastroenteritis.’