Poison scare ex-spy 'only has 50% chance of survival'
A former Russian security agent allegedly poisoned in London looks “like a ghost” in hospital, a friend said today.
Alexander Litvinenko has only a 50% chance of surviving the next four weeks, said Alex Goldfarb, who brought him to Britain six years ago and has been visiting him in hospital.
Associates of Mr Litvinenko are reported to believe he was the victim of an attack by the Russian regime.
Such allegations evoke echoes of Cold War incidents such as the assassination of Georgi Markov, the Bulgarian dissident murdered in London with a poison-tipped umbrella in 1978.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said: “We can confirm that officers from the Specialist Crime Directorate are investigating a suspicious poisoning. There are no arrests and inquiries continue.
“His condition is serious but stable.”
According to reports, Litvinenko, a former colonel in the FSB – successor to the KGB – was taken ill on November 1 while investigating the recent murder of dissident Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
The 44-year-old is thought to have been poisoned following a secret meeting with an associate at a sushi bar in London’s Piccadilly, having been given documents which claimed to name her killers.
He is reported to have been poisoned with thallium, a highly-toxic, colourless and odourless chemical once used in rat and ant killer.
Among the distinctive effects of thallium poisoning are loss of hair and damage to peripheral nerves.
Mr Goldfarb, who has been visiting Litvinenko in London’s University College Hospital, said today: “He looks like a ghost. He’s a very fit man. He never smoked, he never drank, he would run five miles a day, but now he has lost all his hair, he has inflammation in the throat, so he cannot swallow, he has to be fed intravenously, he is very weak, and has not eaten properly for many days. He can speak only with difficulty.”
Mr Goldfarb is executive director of the International Foundation for Civil Liberties, set up by prominent Russian exile Boris Berezovsky, and is normally based in New York.
He said Mr Litvinenko had been treated first at Barnet Hospital in north London but was moved to UCH when his condition worsened.
“He has potential for heart failure, and his immune system is knocked out, making him very susceptible to infection,” he said.
