Russian businessman to help investigation into poisoning

A Russian businessman who was one of the last contacts of former Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko before his fatal poisoning plans to go to Germany to help officials in Hamburg investigate the case, his attorney said today.

Dimitry Kovtun met with Litvinenko in a London hotel bar on November 1, hours before he fell ill.

Litvinenko, a former Russian security agent who became a fierce Kremlin critic and was granted asylum in Britain, died on November 23 of what doctors said was poisoning with polonium-210, a rare radioactive isotope.

Kovtun was treated in hospital himself for suspected radiation poisoning in December, and German authorities said they found traces of polonium-210 in locations in Hamburg visited by Kovtun just before he flew to London for the November 1 meeting.

Kovtun’s attorney, Wolfgang Vehlow, said he was making arrangements with the Hamburg prosecutors investigating the case for Kovtun to visit the city and give his statements.

“Kovtun can clear some things up, but wants to talk first, however, to the state prosecutors,” Vehlow said.