Two more test positive in ex-spy’s poisoning

More in the 'chain of victims'?
Trepashkin was arrested in October 2003 and convicted on charges of divulging state secrets while investigating allegations of FSB involvement in a series of deadly apartment bombings that killed about 300 people in Moscow and two other cities in 1999. The government blamed the explosions on Chechnya-based rebels, but Litvinenko and other Kremlin critics alleged they were staged by authorities as a pretext for launching the current Chechen war.

The FSB, where both Trepashkin and Litvinenko worked, alleged that Trepashkin had been recruited by British agents to collect compromising materials on the explosions with the aim of discrediting the Russian security agency.

Trepashkin said in his letter that after his arrest authorities had put him in a cell contaminated with poisonous chemicals and threatened to kill him.

“Litvinenko and I aren’t the last in this chain of victims of persecution,” he wrote. “Maybe Litvinenko’s death could make you believe in what he was saying.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow was ready to answer concrete questions from Britain concerning Litvinenko’s death, Russian news agencies reported.

“When the questions are formulated and sent through the existing channels, we will consider them thoroughly,” Lavrov was quoted as saying in Jordan by the ITAR-Tass news agency. “There have been no such questions yet.”

Former Russian premier being treated
Gaidar, the former Russian premier who fell ill in Ireland, was treated in the intensive care unit at Dublin’s James Connolly Memorial Hospital, which was also being tested Friday for signs of hazardous materials.

Gaidar, 50, who served briefly as prime minister in the 1990s under President Boris Yeltsin and is one of the leaders of a liberal opposition party, began vomiting and fainted during a conference in Ireland on Nov. 24 — a day after Litvinenko’s death.

Gaidar’s daughter, Maria, said told AP Television News in Moscow that his life was no longer in danger and he was slowly recovering. Gaidar’s aides believe he may also have been poisoned.

Irish police have launched an inquiry into Gaidar’s illness, but they said the investigation was routine and should not worry the public.

“Tracing the movements of the subject and establishing the facts is the focus” of the investigation, police said in a statement.

Traces of radiation have been found at a dozen sites in Britain and five jetliners were being investigated for possible contamination.

A hotel in Sussex, southeastern England, was briefly evacuated Friday as police and health workers carried out tests for polonium-210. The hotel, set in 186 acres of countryside, had been visited by Scaramella after he met with Litvinenko, authorities said. It was later reopened.

British Airways said Friday that one of its planes that has been parked at a Moscow airport would be flown back to London later in the day for a radiation check. Traces of radiation were found on it and two other aircraft that have traveled the Moscow-London route since Nov. 1, when Litvinenko is believed to have been poisoned.

In 1998, Litvinenko publicly accused his superiors of ordering him to kill the tycoon Boris Berezovsky and spent nine months in jail from 1999 on charges of abuse of office. He was later acquitted and in 2000 sought asylum in Britain.

Trepashkin’s letter also mentioned official targeting of Berezovsky.

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