The Biltmore Mayfair - formerly Millennium Hotel

Alexander Litvinenko , a former agent of the Russian intelligence agency FSB (the successor to the KGB), died on November 23, 2006, in a London hospital after being poisoned with the radioactive material polonium-210 . The 43-year-old Litvinenko had been granted asylum in the United Kingdom in 2001 and had become an outspoken critic of President Putin there.

The poisoning took place on November 1, 2006, here in this Millennium Hotel on Grosvenor Square in London. Litvinenko had arranged to meet two former KGB colleagues there, Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun. During this meeting, he drank green tea but noticed a strange taste, causing him not to drink it all. The polonium-210 had been placed in the teapot from which Litvinenko drank.

Only a few hours after drinking the tea, Litvinenko fell ill, and after three weeks of unbearable pain, he died in the hospital. Only three days before his death, a doctor decided to test him for polonium poisoning, which revealed that he had ten times a lethal dose in his body.

Polonium-210 is an extremely rare and deadly radioactive substance that emits alpha particles. This alpha radiation can disrupt cell structures, cause DNA damage, and lead to organ failure. The substance was ideal for the murderers because alpha radiation is not detected by standard radiation detectors at airports, which primarily detect gamma radiation.

Following the discovery of the polonium, Scotland Yard found traces of the radioactive material at no fewer than 21 different locations : on the teacups, the table in the restaurant, the seats on the plane that took the suspects to London, on passport photos, on a clothing receipt, and even in Arsenal's football stadium. Litvinenko had effectively become "a human nuclear bomb" due to the contamination.

In 2021, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that there were "strong indications" that the murderers were agents of the Russian intelligence services and that Russia was responsible for the poisoning. Russia has always denied any involvement and refuses to extradite the suspects.

Litvinenko was buried in a sealed, lead-lined coffin at Highgate Cemetery in London. The coffin had to remain sealed throughout the entire funeral ceremony on the advice of the Health Protection Agency. Due to the radioactive contamination of his body, the coffin was not allowed to be taken inside the mosque (Litvinenko had converted to Islam shortly before his death), so the family had to hold a small private ceremony without the coffin.

Official sources told the family that they would have to wait 22 years before the radioactive material had decayed sufficiently to potentially cremate the remains. This timeframe corresponds to several half-lives of polonium-210, which has a half-life of 138 days. Although some sources reported a lead-lined coffin, sources within the Health Protection Agency later denied and criticized these reports, noting that many of Litvinenko's most contaminated organs had been removed during the autopsy.

Pascal Brackman