Businessman linked to poisoned ex-spy out of hospital

A businessman linked to the poisoning death of former Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko today said he had been released from a Moscow hospital where he was reportedly being treated for radiation exposure.

Andrei Lugovoi, who was questioned last month by Russian and British investigators, said he was out of the hospital and was just “resting,” but did not elaborate.

He said he would make no further comment until Sunday.

The Interfax news agency said he had been released late last month.

Litvinenko’s death in London on November 23 sparked an international furore after doctors determined he had been exposed to highly radioactive polonium-210 and he accused President Vladimir Putin of ordering his murder.

He fell ill after meeting with Lugovoi, also an ex-security agent, along with another Russian businessman, Dmitry Kovtun and another man at a London hotel bar.

Both Lugovoi and Kovtun had reportedly been contaminated and were undergoing treatment in Moscow.

Scotland Yard detectives joined Russian prosecutors in Moscow last month to interview the two men.