Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

Alexander Litvinenko was a former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) who escaped prosecution in Russia and received in the United Kingdom political asylum in spring 2001. In his books, Blowing up Russia: Terror from Within and Lubyanka Criminal Group, Litvinenko alleged that the FSB organized the bombing of apartment buildings in Moscow and other Russian cities in 1999 to pave the way for the Second Chechen War, which brought Vladimir Putin to power. He accused Russian secret services of having arranged the Moscow theater hostage crisis, through their Chechen agent provocateur, and having organised the 1999 Armenian parliament shooting. He also claimed that the Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was under FSB control when he visited Russia in 1997. Upon his arrival in London, he continued to support the Russian oligarch in exile, Boris Berezovsky, in his media campaign against the Russian government. Just two weeks before his death, Litvinenko accused Putin of ordering the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist and human rights activist. ==Illness and poisoning==

On 1 November 2006, Litvinenko suddenly fell ill. Earlier that day he had met two Russian ex-KGB officers, Andrey Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun, at the Pine Bar of the Millennium Hotel in London. On the evening of 1 November, Litvinenko began vomiting and later developed bloody diarrhea. before being hospitalized on 3 November. Three days before his death, photographs were taken of Litvinenko and released to the public. "I want the world to see what they did to me," he said. Unlike some other sources of radiation, polonium-210 emits very little gamma radiation, but large amounts of alpha particles which are relatively difficult to detect with common radiation detectors such as Geiger counters. This explained why tests conducted by doctors and Scotland Yard at the hospital with Geiger counters were negative. Both gamma rays and alpha particles are classified as ionizing radiation, which can cause radiation damage. An alpha-emitting substance can cause significant damage only if ingested or inhaled, acting on living cells like a short-range weapon. Hours before his death, Litvinenko was tested for alpha-emitters using special equipment. Mario Scaramella, who had eaten with Litvinenko at Itsu, reported that doctors had told him the body had five times the lethal dose of polonium-210. On 30 November, it was reported that further medical tests had discovered Scaramella was not contaminated at all. The studies of the biodistribution of 210Po using gamma-ray spectrometry in post-mortem samples were used to estimate intake as 4.4 GBq. Thallium – initial hypothesis Scotland Yard initially investigated claims that Litvinenko was poisoned with thallium. It was reported that early tests appeared to confirm the presence of the poison. Among the distinctive effects of thallium poisoning are hair loss and damage to peripheral nerves, indeed showed his hair to have fallen out. Litvinenko attributed his initial survival to his cardiovascular fitness and swift medical treatment. It was later suggested a radioactive isotope of thallium might have been used to poison Litvinenko. Litvinenko's condition deteriorated, and he was moved into intensive care on 20 November. Hours before his death, three unidentified circular-shaped objects were found in his stomach via an X-ray scan. ==Death and last statement==

Late on 22 November, Litvinenko's heart failed, and he died the following day; the official time of death was 21:21 at University College Hospital in London. The autopsy took place on 1 December, conducted by Benjamin Swift and Nathaniel Cary, with a third pathologist observing from a safe distance. Litvinenko had ingested polonium-210, a poisonous radioactive isotope. Litvinenko's funeral took place on 7 December at the London Central Mosque, after which his body was buried at Highgate Cemetery in North London. In his last statement he said about Putin: ==Investigation==

Initial steps Greater London's Metropolitan Police Service Terrorism Unit has been investigating the poisoning and death. The head of the Counter-Terrorism Unit, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, stated the police "will trace possible witnesses, examine Mr. Litvinenko's movements at relevant times, including when he first became ill and identify people he may have met. There will also be an extensive examination of CCTV footage." The United Kingdom Government COBRA committee met to discuss the investigation. Richard Kolko from the United States FBI stated "when requested by other nations, we provide assistance" – referring to the FBI now joining the investigation for their expertise on radioactive weapons. The Metropolitan Police announced on 6 December 2006 that it was treating Litvinenko's death as murder. Detectives discovered three distinct polonium trails at three different dates, which according to the investigation suggests Andrey Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun made two failed attempts to administer polonium to Litvinenko before the final and successful one. The first attempt took place on 16 October 2006, when Lugovoy and Kovtun met Litvinenko in London; they tried to poison him at an office of Erinys International, a security company, at 25 Grosvenor Street, in Mayfair, and later had lunch with him at the Itsu sushi restaurant in Piccadilly Circus. Polonium trails left by the pair also started on 16 October; the Erinys boardroom, the Itsu restaurant, and their hotel rooms, at 65-73 Shaftesbury Avenue, were found to be contaminated. Polonium was subsequently found in a fourth-floor room and in a cup in the Pine Bar at the hotel. After the Millennium bar, Litvinenko stopped at the office of Boris Berezovsky. He used a fax machine, where radioactive contamination was found later. At 6 pm, Akhmed Zakayev picked Litvinenko up and brought him home to Muswell Hill. The amount of radioactivity left by Litvinenko in the car was so significant that the car was rendered unusable. Besides Litvinenko, only two people left polonium trails: Lugovoy and Kovtun, who were school friends and worked previously for Russian intelligence in the KGB and the GRU, respectively. BA875 and BA873 from Moscow to Heathrow on 25 and 31 October, as well as flights BA872 and BA874 from Heathrow Airport to Moscow on 28 October and 3 November. Andrey Lugovoy has said he flew from London to Moscow on a 3 November flight. He stated he arrived in London on 31 October to attend the football match between Arsenal and CSKA Moscow on 1 November. British Airways later published a list of 221 flights of the contaminated aircraft, involving around 33,000 passengers, and advised those potentially affected to contact the UK Department of Health for help. On 5 December, they issued an email to all of their customers, informing them that the aircraft had all been declared safe by the UK's Health Protection Agency and would be re-entering service. British extradition request British authorities investigated the death and it was reported on 1 December that scientists at the Atomic Weapons Establishment had traced the source of the polonium to a nuclear power plant in Russia. On 3 December, reports stated that Britain had demanded the right to speak to at least five Russians implicated in Litvinenko's death, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov asserted that Moscow was willing to answer "concrete questions". Russian Prosecutor-General Yuri Chaika said on Tuesday 5 December that any Russian citizen who may be charged in the poisoning will be tried in Russia, not Britain. Moreover, Chaika stated that UK detectives may ask questions to Russian citizens only in the presence of Russian prosecutors. On 28 May 2007, the British Foreign Office submitted a formal request to the Russian Government for the extradition of Andrey Lugovoy to the UK to face criminal charges relating to Litvinenko's murder. Russian authorities later said that Britain has not handed over any evidence against Lugovoy. Professor Daniel Tarschys, former Secretary General of the Council of Europe, commented that the Russian Constitution actually "opens the door" for the extradition, and Russia ratified three international treaties on extradition (on 10 December 1999); namely, the European Convention on Extradition and two Additional Protocols to it. Yury Fedotov, Ambassador of the Russian Federation, pointed out that when the Russian Federation ratified the European Convention on Extradition it entered a declaration concerning Article 6 in these terms: "The Russian Federation declares that in accordance with Article 61 (part 1) of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, a citizen of the Russian Federation may not be extradited to another state." BBC programme On 7 July 2008, a British security source told the BBC's Newsnight programme: "We very strongly believe the Litvinenko case to have had some state involvement. There are very strong indications." The British government claimed that no intelligence or security officials were authorised to comment on the case. UK inquiry In January 2016, a UK public inquiry, headed by Sir Robert Owen, found that Andrey Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun were responsible for the poisoning of Litvinenko. The inquiry also found that there was a strong probability that Lugovoy and Kovtun were acting under the direction of the FSB, and that their actions were probably approved by both Nikolai Patrushev, Director of the FSB, and President Vladimir Putin. Carter v. Russia (ECHR) In September 2021, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) found that Russia was responsible for Litvinenko's killing (a violation of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Russia has been a party since 1998). The Court's findings were consistent with those of the UK inquiry; it ruled that it was "beyond reasonable doubt that the assassination had been carried out by" Andrey Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun; that there was "prima facie evidence of state involvement" and that there was a "strong" case that the two assassins were acting as agents of the Russian State; and that Russia had failed to investigate the murder or to identify and punish those responsible. ==Possibly related events==

Litvinenko photo as shooting target (Russia, 2002, 2006) In January 2007, the Polish newspaper Dziennik revealed that a target with a photo of Litvinenko on it was used for shooting practice by the Vityaz Training Centre in Balashikha in October 2002. The centre was not affiliated with the government and trained bodyguards, debt collectors and private security forces, Paul Joyal murder attempt (US, 2007) On 2 March 2007, Paul Joyal, a former director of security for the U.S. Senate intelligence committee, who the previous weekend alleged on national television that the Kremlin was involved in the poisoning of Litvinenko, was shot near his Maryland home. An FBI spokesman said the agency was "assisting" the police investigation into the shooting. Police would not confirm details of the shooting or of the condition of Joyal. A person familiar with the case said he was in critical condition in hospital. It was reported that while there were no indications that the shooting was linked to the Litvinenko case, it is unusual for the FBI to get involved in a local shooting incident. A person familiar with the situation said NBC had hired bodyguards for some of the journalists involved in the program. Skripal assassination attempt (UK, 2018) Sergei Skripal is a former Russian military intelligence officer who acted as a double agent for the UK's intelligence services during the 1990s and early 2000s. In December 2004, he was arrested by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) and later tried, convicted of high treason, and sentenced to 13 years in prison. He settled in the UK in 2010 following the Illegals Program spy swap. On 4 March 2018, he and his daughter Yulia, who was visiting him from Moscow, were poisoned with a Novichok nerve agent. By 15 March 2018, they were in a critical condition at Salisbury District Hospital. The poisoning is being investigated as an attempted murder. He holds both Russian and British citizenship. On 21 March 2018 Russian ambassador to the UK Alexander Yakovenko said that Sergei Skripal is also a Russian citizen. On 29 March, Yulia was reported to be out of critical condition, conscious and talking. A week later, on 6 April, Skripal was said to no longer be in a critical state. He was discharged on 18 May. Detective sergeant Nick Bailey, who was contaminated by the agent used in the assassination attempt against Skripal, suffered under severe health and financial repercussions as a consequence. Dawn Sturgess and her partner, Charlie Rowley, were also accidentally exposed to the Novichok poison, which led to Dawn Sturgess' death. ==Polonium-210==

Sources and production of polonium A freelance killer would probably not be able to manufacture polonium from commercially available products in the amounts used for Litvinenko's poisoning, because macroscopic amounts of polonium can only be produced in state-regulated nuclear reactors, As production of polonium-210 was discontinued in most countries in late 2000s, all of the world's legal polonium-210 (210Po) production occurs in Russia in RBMK reactors. A Moscow Times article claimed Russia produces about 85 grams (450,000 Ci) annually, but this was disputed by Russian nuclear physicist Radiy Ilkaev, who stated the Avangard plant produces only 9.6 grams per year. The production of polonium starts from bombardment of bismuth (209Bi) with neutrons at the Mayak nuclear reactors in Ozersk, near the city of Chelyabinsk in Russia. The product is then transferred to the Avangard Electromechanical Plant in the closed city of Sarov. This does not exclude the possibility that the polonium that killed Litvinenko was imported by a licensed commercial distributor, but no one—including the Russian government—has proposed that this is likely, particularly in regard to the radiation detected on the British Airways passenger jets travelling between Moscow and London. Polonium-210 has a half-life of 138 days and decays to the stable daughter isotope of lead, 206Pb. Therefore, the source is reduced to about one sixteenth of its original radioactivity about 18 months after production. By measuring the proportion of polonium and lead in a sample, one can establish the production date of polonium. The analysis of impurities in the polonium (a kind of "fingerprint") allows identification of the place of production. The isotope used in killing of Litvinenko has been traced by a British theoretical physics professor Norman Dombey: Oleg Gordievsky, the most senior KGB agent ever to defect to Britain, made a similar comment that Litvinenko's assassination was carefully prepared and rehearsed by Russian secret services, but the poisoners were unaware that technology existed to detect traces left by polonium-210: "Did you know that polonium-210 leaves traces? I didn’t. And no one did. ...what they didn’t know was that this equipment, this technology exists in the West – they didn’t know that, and that was where they miscalculated." Expert on Russia Paul Joyal suggested that "A message has been communicated to anyone who wants to speak out against the Kremlin.... If you do, no matter who you are, where you are, we will find you, and we will silence you, in the most horrible way possible." ==Russian response==

Initial public comments The poisoning of Litvinenko immediately led to the suspicion that he was killed by Russian secret services. Viktor Ilyukhin, a deputy chairman of the Russian Parliament's security committee for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, said that he "can’t exclude that possibility". He apparently referred to a recent Russian counter-terrorism law that gives the president the right to order such actions. An investigator of the Russian apartment bombings, Mikhail Trepashkin, wrote in a letter from prison that an FSB team had organised in 2002 to kill Litvinenko. He also reported FSB plans to kill relatives of Litvinenko in Moscow in 2002, although these have not been carried out. State Duma member Sergei Abeltsev commented on 24 November 2006: An explanation put forward by the Russian Government appeared to be that the deaths of Litvinenko and Politkovskaya were intended to embarrass President Putin. Other allegations included involvement of rogue FSB members or suggestions that Litvinenko was killed because of his research of certain Russian corporations or state officials, or as a political intrigue to undermine president Putin. In December 2006, Litvinenko's father Walter accused President Putin of ordering his son's murder and said he had no doubt the FSB had been involved. "The cynical murder of my son was a calculated act of intimidation," he said. In April 2018, Litvinenko senior, who had returned to Russia in 2012 after a period of exile in Italy, appeared in a 30-minute interview on RT and said his son had been murdered by Alex Goldfarb, who he said was an agent of the CIA. The elder Litvinenko's later claims have been found to be false. ==Suspects==

;Andrey Lugovoy : A former Federal Protective Service officer and millionaire who met with Litvinenko on the day he fell ill (1 November). He had visited London at least three times in the month before Litvinenko's death and met with the victim four times. Traces of polonium-210 have been discovered in all three hotels where Lugovoy stayed after flying to London on 16 October, and in the Pescatori restaurant in Dover Street, Mayfair, where Lugovoy is understood to have dined before 1 November; and aboard two aircraft on which he had travelled. He has declined to say whether he had been contaminated with polonium-210. The Crown Prosecution Service has charged him with murder and has sent an extradition request to Russia that includes a summary of the evidence, but the only third party to have seen the extradition request, American journalist Edward Epstein, has described the substantiation as "embarrassingly thin". ;Dmitry Kovtun : A Russian businessman and ex-KGB agent who met Litvinenko in London first in mid-October and then on 1 November, the day Litvinenko fell ill. On 7 December Kovtun was hospitalized, with some sources initially reporting him to be in a coma. Three other points in Hamburg were identified as contaminated with the same substance. On 12 December Kovtun told Russia's Channel One TV that his "health was improving". Germany dropped the case against Kovtun in November 2009. ==Other people related to the case==

; Yegor Gaidar : The sudden illness of Yegor Gaidar in Ireland on 24 November 2006, the day of Litvinenko's death, has been linked to his visit to the restaurant where polonium was present and is being investigated as part of the overall investigation in the UK and Ireland., Other observers noted he was probably poisoned after drinking a strange-tasting cup of tea. Gaidar was taken to hospital; doctors said his condition was not life-threatening and that he would recover. Doctors say that Scaramella was exposed to a much lower level of polonium-210 than Litvinenko, and that preliminary tests found "no evidence of radiation toxicity". According to the 6 pm Channel 4 news (9 December 2006), the intake of polonium he suffered would only result in a dose of . This would lead to a 1 in 20,000 chance of cancer. According to The Independent, Scaramella alleged that Litvinenko was involved in smuggling radioactive material to Zürich in 2000. : Boris Volodarsky, a KGB defector residing in London, stated that Evgeni Limarev, another former KGB officer residing in France, continued collaboration with the FSB, infiltrated Litvinenko's and Scaramella's circles of trust and misinformed the latter. ; Marina Litvinenko : UK reports state Litvinenko's widow tested positive for polonium, though she was not seriously ill. The Ashdown Park hotel in Sussex was evacuated as a precaution, possibly to do with Scaramella's previous visit there. According to the 6 pm Channel 4 (9 December 2006) news, the intake of polonium she suffered would only result in a dose of , leading to a 1 in 200 chance of cancer. ; Akhmed Zakayev : The forensic investigation also includes the silver Mercedes outside Litvinenko's home believed to be owned by his close friend and neighbour Akhmed Zakayev, then foreign minister of the separatist government in exile of Ichkeria. ; British police : Two London Metropolitan Police officers tested positive for 210Po poisoning. ; Bar staff : Some of the bar staff at the hotel where the polonium-contaminated teacup was found were discovered to have suffered an intake of polonium (dose in the range of tens of mSv). These people include Norberto Andrade, the head barman and a long-time (27 years) worker at the hotel. He has described the situation thus: : "When I was delivering gin and tonic to the table, I was obstructed. I couldn't see what was happening, but it seemed very deliberate to create a distraction. It made it difficult to put the drink down. : "It was the only moment when the situation seemed unfriendly and something went on at that point. I think the polonium was sprayed into the teapot. There was contamination found on the picture above where Mr Litvinenko had been sitting and all over the table, chair and floor, so it must have been a spray. : "When I poured the remains of the teapot into the sink, the tea looked more yellow than usual and was thicker – it looked gooey. : "I scooped it out of the sink and threw it into the bin. I was so lucky I didn't put my fingers into my mouth, or scratch my eye as I could have got this poison inside me." ==Timeline==

Background history • 7 June 1994: A remote-controlled bomb detonated aiming at chauffeured Mercedes 600 with oligarch Boris Berezovsky and his bodyguard in the rear seat. The driver was decapitated but Berezovsky managed to survive with severe burns. Litvinenko, then with the organized-crime unit of the FSB, was an investigating officer of the assassination attempt. The case was never solved, but it was at this point that Litvinenko befriended Berezovsky. • 17 November 1998: At a time that Vladimir Putin was the head of the FSB, five officers including Lieutenant-Colonel Litvinenko accuse the Director of the Directorate for the Analysis of Criminal Organizations Major-General Eugeny Hoholkhov and his deputy, 1st Rank Captain Alexander Kamishnikov, of ordering them to assassinate Boris Berezovsky in November 1997. 2006 October 2006 • 7 October: The Russian journalist and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya is shot and killed in Moscow. • 16 October: Andrey Lugovoy flies to London. • 16–18 October: Former KGB agent Dmitry Kovtun visits London, during which time he eats two meals with Litvinenko, one of them at the Itsu sushi bar (see 1 November 2006). • 17 October: Litvinenko visits "Risc Management", a security firm in Cavendish Place, with Lugovoy and Kovtun. November 2006 • 1 November: According to Oleg Gordievsky, Litvinenko meets with Andrey Lugovoy, Dmitry Kovtun and a third person in the Millennium Hotel sometime after 11:30 am, where he is served tea. All locations subsequently visited by him show traces of polonium-210. Just after 3 pm, at the Itsu sushi restaurant on Picadilly, Litvinenko meets the Italian security expert Mario Scaramella, who hands alleged evidence to him concerning the murder of Politkovskaya. Around 4:30 pm he meets Lugovoy and Kovtun again in the Millennium Hotel in London, the meeting only lasting 20 minutes. Later, Litvinenko goes to the office of Boris Berezovsky to copy the papers Scaramella had given him and hand them to Berezovsky before being driven home by Akhmed Zakayev at around 5:20 pm. He later falls ill. • 24 November: The British police state they are investigating the death as a possible poisoning. • 28 November: Scotland Yard announces that traces of polonium-210 have been found in seven different places in London. Among them, an office of the Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky, an avowed opponent of Putin. • 29 November: The HPA announces screening of the nurses and physicians who treated Litvinenko. The authorities find traces of a radioactive substance on board British Airways planes. • 30 November: Polonium-210 traces are found on a number of other planes, most of them going to Moscow. December 2006 • 1 December: An autopsy is performed on the body of Litvinenko. Toxicology results from Mr Litvinenko's post-mortem examination revealed two "spikes" of radiation poisoning, suggesting he received two separate doses. • 8 December: Kovtun is reported to be in coma. • 9 December: UK police identify a single cup at the Pines Bar in the Millennium Hotel in Mayfair which was almost certainly the one used to administer the poison. • 11 December: Andrey Lugovoy is interrogated in Moscow by UK Scotland Yard and General Procurator's office of the Russian Federation. He refuses to reveal any information concerning the interrogation. • 12 December: Dmitry Kovtun tells a Russian TV station that his "health [is] improving". • 27 December: Prosecutor General of Russia Yury Chaika accused Leonid Nevzlin, a former Vice President of Yukos, exiled in Israel and wanted by Russian authorities for a long time, of involvement in the poisoning, a charge dismissed by the latter as a nonsense. 2007 February 2007 • 5 February: Boris Berezovsky told the BBC that on his deathbed, Litvinenko said that Lugovoy was responsible for his poisoning. • 6 February: The text of a letter written by Litvinenko's widow on 31 January to Putin, demanding that Putin work with British authorities on solving the case, was released. • 8 February 2007: Update to HPA (Health Protection Agency) investigation of polonium 210 incident. May 2007 • 21 May: Sir Ken Macdonald QC (Director of Public Prosecutions of England and Wales) says that Lugovoy should face trial for the "grave crime" of murdering Litvinenko. • 22 May: Macdonald announces that Britain will seek extradition of Lugovoy and attempt to charge him with murdering Litvinenko. The Russian government states that they will not allow the extradition of any Russian citizens. • 28 May: The British Foreign Office formally submits a request to the Russian Government for the extradition of Lugovoy to the UK to face criminal charges. • The Constitution of Russia forbids extradition of Russian citizens to foreign countries (Article 61), so the request can not be fulfilled. Extradition requests had been granted in the past (For example, in 2002 Murad Garabayev has been handed to Turkmenistan., Garabayev's extradition was later found unlawful by the Russian courts and he was awarded €20,000 in damages to be paid by the Russian government by the European Court of Human Rights.) Article 63 does not explicitly mention Russian citizens, and therefore does not apply to them, but only to foreign nationals living in Russia. Article 61 supersedes it for the people holding the Russian citizenship. • 31 May: Lugovoy held a news conference at which he accused MI6 of attempting to recruit him and blamed either MI6, the Russian mafia, or fugitive Kremlin opponent Boris Berezovsky for the killing. July 2007 • 16 July: The British Foreign Office confirms that, as a result of Russia's refusal to extradite Lugovoy, four Russian diplomats are to be expelled from the Russian Embassy in London. • 17 July: Russia's deputy foreign minister, Alexander Grushko, threatens to expel 80 UK diplomats. • 19 July: The Russian Foreign ministry spokesman, Mikhail Kamynin, announced the expulsion of four UK diplomats from the British Embassy in Moscow. October 2007 • 27 October: Alexander Litvinenko is reported to have been an MI6 agent. Such claims have been denied by Marina Litvinenko and Oleg Gordievsky. December 2008 • In a 16 December 2008 interview, when asked by the Spanish newspaper El País if Litvinenko could have been killed in the interests of the Russian state, Lugovoy – wanted by British police on suspicion of the murder of Litvinenko – replied that he would order the assassination of anyone, for example, President Saakashvili of Georgia and the KGB defector Gordievsky, in the interests of the Russian state. ==Comparisons to other deaths==

Deaths from ingesting radioactive materials According to the IAEA, in 1960, a person ingested 74 MBq of radium (assumed to be 226Ra) and this person died four years later. Harold McCluskey survived 11 years (eventually dying from cardio respiratory failure) after an intake of at least 37 MBq of 241Am (He was exposed in 1976). It is estimated that he suffered doses of 18 Gy to his bone mass, 520 Gy to the bone surface, 8 Gy to the liver and 1.6 Gy to the lungs; it is also claimed that a post mortem examination revealed no signs of cancer in his body. The October 1983 issue of the journal Health Physics was dedicated to McCluskey, and subsequent papers about him appeared in the September 1995 issue. Like Litvinenko, Shchekochikhin had investigated the Russian apartment bombings (he was a member of the Kovalev Commission that hired Litvinenko's friend Mikhail Trepashkin as a legal counsel). KGB defector and British agent Oleg Gordievsky believes the murders of Yandarbiev, Yushenkov, Shchekochikhin, Tsepov, Politkovskaya and the incident with Litvinenko show that the FSB has returned to the practice of political assassinations, which were conducted in the past by Thirteenth Department of the KGB. A comparison was also made with Roman Tsepov FSB special forces officers from Alpha Group and Vympel were seen to be using Litvinenko photos for target practice in shooting sessions just before his poisoning, according to Russian journalist Yulia Latynina.{{cite web | last = Latynina | first = Yulia | script-title=ru:Вам удастся заставить молчать одного человека | date = 28 November 2006 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061209234331/http://www.ej.ru/dayTheme/entry/5474/ | archive-date = 9 December 2006 ==References in popular culture==

• 60 Minutes aired a segment entitled "Who Killed Alexander Litvinenko?" on 7 January 2007. A transcript is available online. • Thriller writers Frederick Forsyth and Andy McNab claimed that the killing of Alexander Litvinenko is a classic case of fact being stranger than fiction and that they would be fighting a losing battle if they offered a Litvinenko-style story to a publisher. • Hunting the KGB Killers is a Channel 4 documentary released in 2017 on the poisoning. • The British TV series, Litvinenko, is a four-part dramatisation of the assassination and subsequent investigation. It stars David Tennant in the title role. It premièred on ITVX on 15 December 2022. ==See also==