Friends of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko accused "evil forces" in Russia yesterday of being responsible for his death in London overnight, saying the poisoning of the ex-colonel was an act of revenge.
Russia said it was silly to suggest the Kremlin had orchestrated a plot against 43-year-old Mr Litvinenko, a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. British doctors said Mr Litvinenko had been poisoned but did not know the exact form. His death on Thursday night occurred on the eve of an EU-Russia summit in Helsinki.
"He was fighting against the evil forces in Russia, against the KGB, against the authorities which are suppressing democracy and liberal freedoms in Russia," Oleg Gordievsky, a friend of Mr Litvinenko, told Sky television.
"He became a victim of ... revenge and malice of those forces in Russia," said Mr Gordievsky, also a former Russian agent who defected to Britain.
Mr Litvinenko, who lost all his hair and suffered major organ failure, died in a London hospital's intensive care unit after being poisoned three weeks ago.
One doctor said the identity of the poison may never be known. Medical experts have ruled out earlier suggestions it was caused by a heavy metal such as thallium or by radiation.
British police said they were investigating what they called the "unexplained" death and that anti-terrorism officers were working on the case. Mr Litvinenko spoke to police from his hospital bed before his condition deteriorated. If Russia was found to have had a hand in the poisoning, there could be far-reaching diplomatic consequences. It would be the first such incident known to have taken place in the West since the Cold War.
Factbox
Following are some key facts about Mr Litvinenko:
• Litvinenko served in the KGB's counter-intelligence department and then the Federal Security Service's (FSB) highly secret organised crime group. The FSB is the main successor organisation to the Soviet KGB and deals with internal threats.
• In 1998, he turned on his former comrades and claimed at a Moscow press conference - with men in masks who claimed to be Russian secret service men - that senior FSB officers had planned to murder Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky.
• He was arrested several times by the FSB, his former employer, but was freed by a court and charges were dropped. In 2000 he fled to Britain with his wife and son and was granted asylum.
• In London, Mr Litvinenko mixed with some of the Kremlin's adversaries including Mr Berezovsky and Chechen separatist leader Akhmed Zakayev.
• Mr Litvinenko co-authored a book in 2002 entitled Blowing Up Russia: Terror From Within, in which he alleged FSB agents co-ordinated apartment block bombings in Russia that killed more than 300 people in 1999.
• A Russian court in 2002 tried him in absentia for misuse of office, stealing explosive material and the illegal purchase and storing of firearms and ammunition. He was given a suspended sentence of three and a half years.
• Russia's FSB approached Britain in 2002 with a request to question Mr Litvinenko in connection with the 1999 apartment block bombings.
• British police gave his age as 43, while some media reports said he was 41. Deborah Haynes , Reuters