Businessman and ex-KGB agent Dmitry Kovtun, one of two Russian men accused by Britain of poisoning Kremlin critic Aleksandr Litvinenko in London in 2006, has died after contracting COVID-19 in Moscow, Russian state media reported on June 4.
He was 57.
Andrei Lugovoi, a member of the lower house of Russian parliament who had served in the KGB with Kovtun and was also accused in the case, confirmed the news of Kovtun’s death.
“My close and loyal friend Dmitry Kovtun has suddenly died following a grave illness linked to a coronavirus infection," Lugovoi said in a statement.
The TASS news agency said he had died in a Moscow hospital.
Britain says Litvinenko, a naturalized British citizen, died weeks after drinking tea laced with radioactive polonium-210 at London's Millennium Hotel, where he met Kovtun and Lugovoi.
A former Russian intelligence officer, Litvinenko had become an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He accused Russian security agencies of blowing up buildings in Moscow and others cities in August and September 1999 -- just weeks after Putin was plucked from obscurity to be prime minister -- to justify a new war in Chechnya, and to help bolster Putin’s credibility as a law-and-order leader.
British investigators said they found traces of polonium at sites where Kovtun and Lugovoi had been in the English capital, including in offices, hotels, planes, and a football stadium.
Both men deny any involvement in Litvinenko's death, and Russia refused to extradite them to face trial.
However, Kovtun reportedly suffered a severe health breakdown from radiation exposure in December 2006, according to Russian media reports. Some reports at the time said he slipped into a coma and was experiencing major-organ failure.
It is unclear what, if any, role that radiation exposure may have played in his ability to fight COVID-19. It is also unclear whether he was vaccinated.
People with preexisting medical conditions and older people have a greater chance of dying from complications caused by COVID-19, data shows.
John Moore, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, told RFE/RL that, while significant radiation damage would weaken an individual’s immune system, it would be hard to establish cause and effect in Kovtun's case.
He noted that Kovtun was in the age range where the risks posed by contracting COVID becomes significant.
"Nonetheless, suffering radiation damage is pretty likely to be problematic for dealing with COVID," Moore said.