A radioactive trail acrosss Europe...
Following one of the most extensive criminal investigations in British history – and a £2.25million inquiry – the Mail here lays bare a blow-by-blow account of how the state-sponsored assassination of Alexander Litvinenko unfolded.
OCTOBER 2004
Sir Robert Owen believes Andrei Lugovoi may have started plotting when the pair met in London to discuss a ‘business proposal’. By then Mr Litvinenko was being paid £2,000 a month by the MI6 to pass information about organised gangs linked to senior Kremlin figures.
OCTOBER 16, 2006
Mr Litvinenko travels by bus to an office in Mayfair for a meeting in the boardroom of security firm Erinys. He meets consultant Tim Reilly, along with Russians Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun, who had flown to London that morning on a from Moscow. They are carrying a vial of polonium-210 from a Russian nuclear reactor. They attempt to kill Litvinenko by spraying a small amount of polonium-210 into his cup. Sir Robert concluded that Lugovoi and Kovtun ‘knew they were using a deadly poison’ and intended to kill Litvinenko, but did not know precisely what the poison was.
The assassination fails as Litvinenko does not take a sip. A month later the green baize tablecloth is still be contaminated with radiation. After the meeting they go for lunch at Itsu in Piccadilly, which is contaminated.
OCTOBER 17
The assassins move to the Parkes Hotel in Knightsbridge, which they also contaminate. Once again they meet Mr Litvinenko, but do not try to poison him.
OCTOBER 18
Lugovoi and Kovtun fly back to Moscow from Gatwick, contaminating the plane with radiation.
OCTOBER 19
Mr Litvinenko makes a speech publicly blaming Vladimir Putin for the murder of a Russian journalist.
OCTOBER 25
After an almost certain rebuke, Lugovoi returns to London, contaminating the aircraft.
OCTOBER 26
He meets a contact called Badri Patarkatsishvili, a wealthy Georgian, and contaminates his car. He is visited by Mr Litvinenko at his hotel, the Sheraton Park Lane, where radiation is also later found. They met the following day before he returned to Moscow on a BA flight.
OCTOBER 28
Kovtun flies from Moscow to Hamburg, where he visits his exwife. Traces of radiation are later found in her flat as well as locations including his mother- inlaw’s home.
OCTOBER 31
Lugovoi arrives in London with his family on a BA plane that also tests positive for polonium. They were ostensibly visiting to watch CSKA
Moscow football club play at Arsenal’s ground.
NOVEMBER 1 Kovtun arrives in London, meets Lugovoi and they start planning their assassination attempt by luring Mr Litvinenko to central London. Lugovoi calls Mr Litvinenko and suggests a meeting at the Pine Bar in the Millennium Hotel.
Litvinenko takes a bus from his home in Muswell Hill, north London, then a Tube to Piccadilly Circus where he has a 3pm lunch with his associate Mario Scaramella.
He fields calls from an increasingly irate Lugovoi. By this stage the killers have ordered three teas, three gin and tonics, one straight gin, one champagne cocktail, one Romeo y Julieta cigar No 1, and some green tea. The bill is £70.60.
Moments before Mr Litvinenko arrives, some polonium is sprayed from a vial into the pot of green tea and this time he does drink some.
Before leaving, Lugovoi returns to the bar with his eight-year-old son Igor. Lugovoi introduced him to Mr Litvinenko and Igor shakes his contaminated hand.
Mr Litvinenko’s teapot gave off readings of 100,000 becquerels per centimetre squared – 10,000 ingested is enough to kill someone. The biggest reading came from the spout. Their table registered 20,000 becquerels. There were traces on bottles of Martini and Tia Maria behind the bar, the ice-cream scoop and a chopping board. After putting the poison in Mr Litvinenko’s teapot, Kovtun goes to his room and tips the rest of the liquid solution down his bathroom sink. At 5.20pm Mr Litvinenko gets a lift home from his friend Akhmed Zakayev. Mr Litvinenko later falls violently ill.
NOVEMBER 4 Mr Litvinenko admitted to Barnet General Hospital, north London, under his pseudonym Edwin Redwald Carter.
NOVEMBER 17 Medics transfer him to University College Hospital, where he is placed under armed police guard.
NOVEMBER 20 The polonium starts to take hold and he suffers weigh and hair loss. Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism unit begins investigation.
NOVEMBER 22 Litvinenko has a heart attack in the night.
NOVEMBER 23 He dies and Scotland Yard launch a major operation and London is put on lockdown as chemical experts try to clear up radiation. Scotland Yard detectives were dispatched to Moscow in search of evidence but repeatedly obstructed.