MOSCOW, November 20 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's foreign intelligence service denied Monday any involvement in the alleged poisoning of a former agent in London.
Alexander Litvinenko, 44, a former officer of the Federal Security Service (FSB) and allegedly a close associate of Russia's fugitive oligarch Boris Berezovsky, is now in a London hospital with symptoms of severe poisoning.
"Russia's foreign intelligence service has nothing to do with Alexander Litvinenko's condition," the chief spokesman for the service, Sergei Ivanov, said, adding that media reports had all been false and unsubstantiated.
Litvinenko left Russia with his wife and son in 2000. Two years later, a Russian court convicted him in absentia for abuse of office. British authorities granted him political asylum and issued a British passport.
Litvinenko told The Sunday Times newspaper that he had met with an Italian acquaintance, Mario Scaramella, who gave him a letter concerning an investigation into the recent high-profile killing of a Kremlin critic, journalist Anna Politkovskaya, in Moscow.
Shortly afterwards, in early November, Litvinenko became sick and had all the symptoms of poisoning. Within a week, his condition deteriorated and he lost nearly all his hair.
Doctors said Litvinenko could not eat for 18 days. His bone marrow was badly damaged, depriving his body of white blood cells.
Tests showed that the concentration of dangerous thallium metal in the ex-spy's body was three times above the norm.
Russian intelligence says not involved in ex-spy poisoning in UK
Subscribe
Russia's foreign intelligence service denied Monday any involvement in the alleged poisoning of a former agent in London.
