Abstract:
Alexander Litvinenko was a Russian spy initially working with the KGB and afterwards with FSB. He was given orders to assassinate a Russian business tycoon but he did not follow the order but instead went ahead to publicly expose it among other KGB and FSB secrets. He was then imprisoned for nine months for treason. Upon his release, he was given political asylum in the United Kingdom following several death threats. With the ostensible sense of security in the UK he continued to condemn the then leader of the FSB Vladimir Putin and Kremlin, accusing them of drug trafficking, bombing apartment buildings in Moscow to threaten Russians, rising to power by secretly using FSB and linked FSB to some terrorists among other things (LeVine, S. 2008). He also wrote two books, Blowing up Russia: terror from within and Lubyanka criminal group. In 1st November 2006, he was poisoned and succumbed 22 days thereafter. Forensic tests showed that he had been poisoned with polonium 210, and was the first known victim of polonium poisoning. This according to doctors was “an ominous landmark” in the beginning of nuclear terrorism
Introduction:
Polonium is an earth metal of atomic number 84 discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898. With over 25 isotopes, it is the metal with the highest number of isotopes among all known atoms. It has a half-life of 138 days and decays to stable lead (206) the biological half-life has however been established to be between 15-50 days depending on the species of the subject.. The decay releases alpha particles (actually helium nucleus) which are heavy and charged and only radiate within centimeters. It has various uses ranging from; dusting photograph films and camera lenses, powering spacecraft and neutralizing static electricity in machines. With costly, time consuming and dangerous production in nuclear reactors, very little amounts are produced. (100g are annually produced in Russia and it accounts for 97% of the world’s legal polonium.) It occurs naturally as a byproduct of uranium and radon decay. Polonium is extremely lethal (a million times cyanide) and even small amount as a grain of salt kills a human subject.
The poisoning by polonium is actually not due to the compound but due to the Alpha radiation produced. The radiation has very little penetration and is therefore not entirely dangerous in the environment; ingestion to the body however makes it extremely lethal. The element is odorless, colorless and tasteless making it very difficult to detect. Even a radiation detector would only detect one count in a minute. Experts in British health protection agency established that once in the bloodstream, polonium poisoning was impossible to stop. As alpha radiation bombards internal organs and tissues, the internal organs fail (Newquist, H. P., & Maloof, R. 2009). The symptoms for the poisoning shown by Litvinenko include; hair loss, pallor, nausea and throat swelling. It is ingested, by inhalation, through open wounds or by consuming it through food as in the case of Litvinenko.
The choice of polonium 210 for poisoning has been termed ingenious. According to Nick Priest a nuclear physicist and an expert in polonium “the choice of poison was genius in that polonium, carried in a vial in water, can be carried in a pocket through airport screening devices without triggering any alarms”. He explains further that the poisoning shows no signs of polonium poisoning allowing it to penetrate deeper in the body without detection. It took doctors several days to establish that Litvinenko had been poisoned by polonium with initial speculation being that he had been poisoned by Thallium (Goldfarb, A., & Litvinenko, M. 2007). This was consistent with the signs he showed then of Hair loss and damage of peripheral nerves. Death by polonium poisoning is slow and torturous (Litvinenko died after 22 days of excruciating pain). It was established that he had ingested about 10mg, which is ten times the lethal dose.
The substance is extremely hard to come by. The nuclear facilities (reactors and particle accelerators are tightly monitored and its production is tightly regulated. It therefore goes without saying that a dose sufficient to kill would come from the government. With the law of radioactive decay the time of production of polonium can be established and through analysis of the impurities in the polonium the place of production can as well be established. Litvinenko’s wife has claimed that the time and place of the production of the polonium used to kill his husband had been established by British investigators. It widely believed that Litvinenko was killed by Russian secret service. Litvinenko himself attributed his poisoning to Putin. (Goldfarb, A., & Litvinenko, M. 2007). There were several trails that were left by Litvinenko and his suspected murderer Andrei Lugovoi (the traces helped in the investigation trace the murderer). There were no casualties however as a result of the traces. According to experts in the investigation, the traces and Britain’s ability to trace them were out of the plan of the murderer who is presumed not to have had full awareness of the poison.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, polonium is a lethal radioactive poison. It was used in the murder of former Russian spy Litvinenko. Its undetectable proper ties make it attractive for assassins. This makes it very ideal for assassination attempts and explains why it has been used in numerous assassination attempts. Its source is however limited and is not easily accessed by civilians. It is also traceable and the assassin can be traced, as for Litvinenko’s case it was traced to Russian secret service. Other unconfirmed victims include Yasser Arafat, and several Israeli scientists claimed to have been exposed to after leakage in Weizmann institute of science. This clearly indicates that polonium 210 poisoning can be linked to numerous deaths around the world.
References
Goldfarb, A., & Litvinenko, M. (2007). Death of a dissident: the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko and the return of the KGB. New York: Free Press.
LeVine, S. (2008). Putin's labyrinth spies, murder, and the dark heart of the new Russia. New York: Random House.
Newquist, H. P., & Maloof, R. (2009). This will kill you: a guide to the ways in which we go. New York: St. Martin's Griffin.
Polonium. (2010). S.l.: General Books.
