Litvinenko cops: We fell victim to Putin’s teapot poisoners too
SCOTLAND Yard detectives who investigated the infamous poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in London – believed to have been sanctioned by Vladimir Putin – have revealed that they too were poisoned by the Russians, in an extraordinary attempt to thwart their inquiry.
British officers were sent to Moscow in the hunt for suspects after Litvinenko, 44, a former KGB agent and critic of the Russian government, was poisoned with tea containing radioactive polonium 210.
Now one of the detectives has claimed that, in an eerie parallel, he and a colleague also fell victim to poisoning, albeit by sickness bacteria rather than deadly radioactivity.
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.’
The officers had been in Russia for two days when, on November 23, 2006, Litvinenko died in London, 22 days after meeting two Russian men at a Mayfair hotel for tea.
Before flying out, Tarpey’s team had received assurances of co-operation as they sought to gather evidence and interview suspects, but it soon became clear the Russians’ real objective was to frustrate British efforts to find the truth.
What followed was barely believable, as the officers reveal in a Channel 4 programme to be broadcast on Easter Monday.
They were met with barefaced lies from their opposite numbers, hotel rooms were secretly searched, they were followed by shadowy Russian agents and a crucial piece of evidence went missing – the recording of an interview with one of the chief suspects.
Tarpey says: ‘It was evident we’d been outmanoeuvred by the Russians like a chess piece.
‘There were eight things we wanted to achieve while we were there. The top two were to interview [suspects] Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun.’
They were told that one officer was allowed in see Kovtun who was in hospital, said to be receiving treatment for polonium poisoning. But Tarpey was suspicious that a heavily bandaged decoy was put in his place. ‘The detective was told he was Kovtun but all he could see was the eyes,’ says Tarpey. ‘It could have been anyone.’
Litvinenko had fled Russia and was living in Britain when he was poisoned with one million times the lethal dose of polonium. Traces of radiation were later found across London.
Former detective Clive Timmons, who interviewed Litvinenko in hospital, says: ‘The picture of him in his bed didn’t capture the diabolical pain he went through.’
The Hunt For The KGB Killers, Channel 4, April 17, 9pm.