The article assumes that Litvinenko was murdered, based on Scotland Yard's findings thus far, but there is still the possibility of assassination or even suicide.
NYT Four people who had contact in Germany with a business associate of a
murdered former Russian spy were hospitalized here today, on suspicion
they had been contaminated by polonium, the same radioactive substance
that killed the spy.
The Russian businessman, Dmitri Kovtun, spent four days in Hamburg in late October before flying to London, where he and two other Russian men met at a hotel with the ex-K.G.B. agent, Alexander V. Litvinenko. , on Nov. 1. Mr. Litvinenko fell ill later that day from radiation poisoning and died several weeks later.
German prosecutors have begun a criminal investigation of Mr. Kovtun, who is reported to be in a hospital in Moscow, saying there was evidence he may have illegally handled polonium. He could also have left traces of it after being contaminated himself, the police said. Read more.
Guardian The German inquiry focuses on whether he was in illegal contact with radioactive materials rather than the murder of Mr Litvinenko itself. At a press conference, a senior prosecutor said that one possible explanation was that while "packaging or transporting" the polonium before the meeting, Mr Kovtun had been "sloppy" and accidentally touched it.
However, the German authorities said the evidence did not necessarily mean that Mr Kovtun had carried a polonium source with him from Moscow to London via Hamburg in order to poison Mr Litvinenko. He may simply have been contaminated by the material and carried traces with him.
Mr Kovtun, a Russian businessman, met Mr Litvinenko together with another business associate, Andrei Lugovoi, at London's Millennium hotel shortly before the KGB defector fell fatally ill.
Mr Lugovoi has suggested that he and Mr Kovtun were contaminated with radiation when they met Mr Litvinenko on an earlier trip to London in October.
Both men are being tested for radiation poisoning at a Moscow clinic. They have denied any involvement in the murder, and offered to cooperate fully with Scotland Yard's inquiry.
There does seem to be a trail of poloniun that follows all former KGB agents, making this case more difficult for UK authorities, but I get the feeling this case is going to take years.
