Chilling echo of ex-KGB man whose tea was poisoned in Mayfair
THE suspected poisoning of Sergei Skripal bears a chilling similarity to the assassination of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London in November 2006.
Mr Litvinenko was given green tea laced with radioactive polonium 210 at the Millennium Hotel in Mayfair.
The ex-spy, who took British citizenship after seeking asylum in 2000, was an outspoken critic of the Kremlin and worked as an adviser for MI6.
He fell violently ill on the way home after drinking from a teapot sprayed with polonium during a meeting with associate Mario Scaramella and was taken to Barnet General Hospital, North London. He died three weeks later.
A 2016 report by former judge Robert Owen found that Mr Litvinenko was killed by two former KGB agents, Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun, while Vladimir Putin and intelligence chief Nikolai Patrushev ‘probably’ personally authorised the attack. Moscow has refused to extradite the two suspects, instead showering them with honours.
Russia is suspected of involvement in up to 1 deaths in Britain, including that of businessman Alexander Perepilichnyy. The -yearold, a key witness in a £150million tax fraud investigation involving corrupt Russian officials, collapsed and died at his Surrey home in 2012.
Oligarch Boris Berezovsky, 67, fell out with Mr Putin and fled to Britain – where he was found hanged at his Berkshire home in 2013.