LONDON - British intelligence officers are convinced that the Russian secret service authorised the poisoning of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko, who died last month, The Times reported on Tuesday. Citing security sources, the newspaper said that only officials such as agents of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) -- the KGB’s successor — would have access to sufficient amounts of the radioactive substance polonium-210 to kill Litvinenko. The former agent’s urine was found to have unexplained large quantities of polonium.Oh, I think it can be explained ...
“We know how the FSB operates abroad and, based on the circumstances behind the death of Mr Litvinenko, the FSB has to be the prime suspect,” an unnamed source was quoted as saying by The Times.
Security sources also told the newspaper that the FSB was likely to have used some of its former agents to carry out the operation.
A senior police source also told the newspaper that the method of killing Litvinenko, a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was intended to send a message to his friends and allies. “It’s such a bad way to die, they must have known ... The sheer organisation involved could only have been managed by professionals adept at operating internationally,” the source was quoted as saying.
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