Berezovsky Sealed Up
// A Russian diplomat is mixed in Alexander Litvinenko’s case
It became known yesterday that London police had sealed up the office of political emigrant Boris Berezovsky, where the traces of radioactive polonium-210 had been discovered. Former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned with that chemical. The employees of the office and Berezovsky himself were checked for radioactive contamination, everyone is all right. Meanwhile, Scotland Yard became interested in Anatoly Kirov, former employee of Russian consulate in London. Late Litvinenko believed Kirov to be the curator of Russia’s agent network.
London police is investigating Alexander Litvinenko’s “suspicious death”. The police sealed up 2 more premises in the center of London yesterday: offices of political emigrant Boris Berezovsky on Down Street, and those of the nearby private security firm. Thus, Scotland Yard discovered 7 sites in London with traces of polonium-210 in less than a week. Allegedly, Alexander Litvinenko was there on November 1, when he was poisoned, according to police.
Berezovsky confirmed the discovery of polonium traces, but refrained from giving comments. Alex Goldfarb, head of the Foundation For Civil Liberties and Litvinenko’s friend, said that “Berezovsky himself and employees of his office were checked for radioactive contamination, but everyone is all right, fortunately”. “I think the office was sealed up both due to security reasons, and for carrying out investigation procedures there,” said Goldfarb, adding that “it creates certain inconvenience”.
Italian security expert Mario Scaramella now has inconveniences as well. He met with Litvinenko on November 1 in London sushi-bar Itsu. Scaramella gave testimony to British police, and the police took him under protection, putting him in a “safe place” not far from London, where he is being tested for the presence of polonium-210 in his body.
Evgeny Savostyanov, who supervised law-enforcement structures in the president’s administration in the 1990s, said that using polonium-210 as poison is “amusing”. He said the reactors producing that chemical have their “signature” balance of isotopes. “Thus, Scotland Yard will know soon in which country, and perhaps even in which reactor, that chemical was produced,” he said.
British mass media, including The Times, suspect that polonium-210 might have been sent to London by diplomatic mail from Russia, and that employee of Russian consulate in London Anatoly Kirov might have been involved. He arose suspicions first of all because his name was repeatedly mentioned by Litvinenko, who claimed that the diplomat is the intelligence officer spying on him. “Alexander said that Anatoly Kirov controls agent network which is spying on us: Boris Berezovsky, Akhmed Zakaev, Alexander Litvinenko, and me,” said Goldfarb. Besides, it turned out that Kirov graduated from Moscow Mining Institute in late 1970s with the diploma of mining engineer-physicist. Theoretically, he could have acquired the skills of working with radioactive chemicals back then.
Kommersant did not manage to contact Kirov. Igor Naumov, deputy dean of geological physics department at Moscow Mining Institute, confirmed that Kirov studied there and graduated with diploma of profession #0210. However, Professor Naumov believes that suspicions should not be related to Kirov’s education. “The university does not have any special theory courses devoted to radioactive elements,” explained Naumov. “Neither there is practice with radioactive chemicals. The matter is that such activities require high security level which cannot be reached in a university. So, there is no major in radioactive elements. Our alumni know about polonium-210 not more than those who graduated from any other technical college.”
Press service of Russian embassy in London rejected anti-Kirov suspicions as well. “Anatoly Kirov worked in the consulate and left in late September-early October 2005, when his mission was over,” said the embassy’s spokesman Vladislav Novikov. “His duties included working with compatriots and passing official messages from Russian ministries to British ones. He might be called just an intermedium.”
In his turn, Russia’s Federal Atomic Agency head Sergei Kirienko claims that polonium-210 could not have been stolen from Russian enterprises and brought to Great Britain, because the control over its export is “extremely stiff”. “On the whole, Russia exports only 8 grams of this chemical per month. It was supplied to Britain before 2001-2002, but it is not now,” he said, adding that polonium is transported in highly guarded containers because it causes death after getting into human body and precipitating on the bones and in the lungs. However, Russia’s Prosecutor General’s Office said yesterday it is ready to join the investigation of the polonium scandal if it receives the request from British authorities.
Sergei Chabanenko; Alvina Kharchenko, London
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 29, 2006
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