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Lavrov Says Britain Politicizing Litvinenko Case

June 01, 2007

Russia refuses to extradite Andrei Lugovoi to Britain (epa)

Russia refuses to extradite Andrei Lugovoi to Britain (epa)

June 1, 2007 -- Russia's foreign minister says Britain is politicizing the November 2006 murder case of former Russian security officer Aleksandr Litvinenko.


Sergei Lavrov told journalists the case is having an impact on relations between London and Moscow.


Britain is seeking the extradition of a former KGB officer, Andrei Lugovoi, to face trial for Litvinenko's murder by radiation poisoning. Russia has refused to extradite him, saying its constitution does not allow this.


Lugovoi on May 31 said that Litvinenko was a British spy, and that Britain's secret services had tried to recruit him as a spy, too.


(ITAR-TASS, Interfax)

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Facts About Polonium-210
Marie Curie at work in 1925 (AFP)

  • Polonium, also called "radium F," was discovered by Marie Curie and her husband, Pierre Curie, in 1898 and was later named after Marie's homeland of Poland (Latin: Polonia).
  • It is an alpha emitter, meaning that although it is highly radioactive, it cannot penetrate human skin or a sheet of paper. Washing eliminates traces.
  • Contact with a carrier's sweat or urine could lead to exposure. But polonium-210 must be ingested or inhaled to cause damage.
  • Polonium-210 has a relatively short half-life of 138 days.
  • Polonium-210 occurs naturally in the environment (it is found in such things as dirt and tobacco) and in people at low concentrations. But acquiring a lethal amount would require individuals with expertise and connections.
  • Polonium-210 emits 5,000 times more alpha particles than radium, and an amount the size of the period at the end of this sentence would contain about 3,400 times the lethal dose. A dose like the one that killed former Russian spy Aleksandr Litvinenko would probably have been manufactured at a nuclear facility.
  • Russia exports 8 grams of polonium-210 monthly, all of it to the United States. Exports to Britain ended about five years ago.

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