Dec 10 2006
Trail Shows Kovtun Was Contaminated, Smuggler
Major Update: Well, one prediction of mine has been proven wrong. It seems Kovtun flew from Moscow to Hamburg first, and then onto London. One has to wonder why he would do this round-about route to get to London. Did he need to pick something up in Hamburg was he trying to provide an indepedent route for the material he was carrying?
Major Update: Some Polonium 210 must have come in from Germany with Kovtun since it is now pretty clear his trail begins prior to his trip to London:
German authorities said Sunday they have found traces of the rare radioactive substance polonium-210 at an apartment visited by a contact of poisoned ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko before they met in London.
Prosecutors said they were investigating Dmitry Kovtun on initial suspicion of improper handling of radioactive material, but said any connection with Litvinenko’s death was for British police to clarify.
Investigators said the Russian businessman visited his ex-wife’s Hamburg apartment the night before heading to London, where he met Litvinenko on November 1 — the day the former spy is believed to have fallen ill.
Litvinenko was killed by polonium-210. Gerald Kirchner of the German Federal Radiation Protection agency said at a news conference that tests on traces of radiation at the apartment “clearly show that it is polonium-210.”
Kovtun arrived in Hamburg from Moscow on October 28 on an Aeroflot flight, officials said.
This is some big news because the material is not coming in from Russia as suspected. As I noted below, there is a history of smuggling nuclear material out of Russia and Europe to the ME from Germany in the 1990’s (I will get a link here soon). So it would make sense this same network could reverse the flow now. And Oct 28th was not Kovtun’s first trip to London. He was with Lugovoi and Litvinenko on Oct 16th, which is associated with another hotel contamination in Knightsbridge.
Radiation was found on a couch where Kovtun is believed to have slept in his ex-wife’s apartment, on a document he brought to Hamburg immigration authorities and in the passenger seat of the BMW car that picked him up from Hamburg airport, police said.
This last item is also important. It seems Kovtun had simply stayed over between flights from someplace else on his way to London (thus the car contamination). And it seems the German police are being much more realistic in their reporting of events:
Prosecutor Martin Koehnke said Kovtun was not initially treated as a suspect because of the possibility that the polonium was inside his body.
Subsequently, Koehnke said, an investigation against him on suspicion of improper handling of radioactive material was begun “because at least at the moment, at this stage of the investigation, we have sufficient initial cause to believe that he brought the polonium traces to Hamburg outside his body, or that these traces are the result of contact with polonium 210.”
This confirms something else I have assumed – authorities can distinguish one form of contamination from the other. Therefore there is no doubt when something is being contaminated from a human vector (infected person) verses material itself being transported by someone (knowingly or unknowingly).
Addendum: OK, switched computers, had a crash and now recovering my research links. I am not going to try and synopsise these, instead I leave it for the readers to ingest. But these links give a picture of the nuclear smuggling history and paths.
First is this report on nuclear smuggling between 1995-2000 which speculates on the reasons for an apparent lull in activity during this period. Take special note on the Iridium smuggling into the UK that took place. And there was a case when material was smuggled from Russia into Germany which caused a big stir.
Second is this chronology of nuclear smuggling cases from 1993-1995. The third item of interest is this report on nuclear smuggling involving Turkey, which seems to be a gateway between Europe and the Middle East. The next link focuses in on a 2004 investigation in Switzerland regarding alleged nuclear smuggling activities. Next is this recent report regarding these same smuggling activities in Switzerland and how they relate to AQ Kahn’s nuclear black market activities which were linked to nuclear programs in Iran and Lybia. Next is a recent news report that one Boris Berezovsky is now under investigation in Switzerland for many laundering. Let me save here and see if I need to add some more links tying all this to Germany. But you will see Germany mentioned in many of these reports as one path of the smuggling paths used in the 1990s. The same time Kovtun moved to Germany to start his business. OK, one more on smuggling in general.
More: Here is a link between a German and AQ Kahn’s network, and here is a report from 1994 showing how Germany was the frontline for nuclear smuggling at that time. OK, that should establish the fact there is a case to be made this was a smuggling effort and a natural path was through existing resources and players. I would not be surprised to learn Kovtun had returned from some country near the mid-east on his way to London.
Even More: Link between Switzerland, Germany and AQ Kahn network. Details starting coming out at the trial as well.
– end update
Details released by German authorities indicate Kovtun was trailing Polonium-210.
Hamburg- German prosecutors have opened an inquiry against Russian businessman Dmitry Kovtun for spreading radioactive polonium as he travelled through the city of Hamburg on October 30-31, senior prosecutor Martin Koehnke said Sunday. At a news conference in Hamburg, Koehnke said Kovtun was not yet being accused of the murder the Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko, who died in London three weeks later.
The suspicion of spreading a dangerous substance in Hamburg came after polonium-210 was found on a couch where Kovtun slept, on the passenger seat of a car in which he travelled and on an immigration document he personally signed at a German government office.
© 2006 dpa German Press Agency
The question now is how is it he did not get any in his own house. And of course we need to know when this was relative to Litvinenko’s poisoning. I have been researching smuggling paths for nuclear material and it turns out the Germany was in the 1990’s one such regular path out fo Russia. And of course there are paths to the ME as well. I would not be surprised if this Polonium-210 originated in Iran and found its way over old smuggling routes from the 1990’s into Europe. Experience ounts on these things. Kovtun and others could have been asociated with the export of material heading towards Iran and Pakistand and Libya.
The couch comination was October 30 per German police – I will go back again and try to find the article
also this:
Am 30. Oktober habe Kowtun im Ausländeramt der Stadt eine Unterschrift geleistet. Das Blatt sei ebenfalls kontaminiert
Kovtun signed some paperrwork for foreigners on Oct. 30 – the paper itself is also contaminated.
Other than specific activity, which is roughly how “concentrated” the radioactivity is, the only difference I can think of between comtamination made by a person vs polonium au natural would be in the shape of the hot spot – using a piece of film the hot spot could be visualized… it might look like a shoe print, a finger print, a smear, if you’re thinking a large amount og polonium the hot spots might just look dust spots.
My caution to you would again be to say that other than the cup in the Millennium bar, and room 411 to a lesser degree, large amounts of contamination have not been reported so far.
Just a minor quibble, “infection” is entirely inappropriate in this context – in all uses prior to this story an infection requires a living organism like a virus or bacteria (I realize that some of the media has also made this mistake while talking about polonium).
AJ
If Iran is the origin (as I have also wondered), the implications of allowing them to continue to go forward with their nuclear programs could be catastrophic. It’s more than a smoking gun, its a radiating time bomb for Europe, Israel, and the West. I think I see massive air strikes in the near future if this turns out to be true.
Ok so that understand this – a special kind of photograph will show a kind of outline of the stuff – like for example Kovtov could have left a radioactive “fingerprint” literally on the documents he signed Oct. 30? That would be pretty amazing.
The Iranians are new at nuclear activity and are unsophisticated about safety measures. I have thought all along that Iran was involved because this polonium seemed to be unsafely contained. Besides they wouldn’t care if a infidel was killed with this stuff. I think this was strictly an accident caused by improper containers. Probably even a glass vial which is the container of choice for most chemical solutions. It probably broke down and these guys had to put it into a cup while getting another container which explains the high contamination of the cup. And there was a large spill in the Millenium room. But large is relevant. It was large compared to the amount of polonium there. I really don’t think these guys knew that the stuff was so dangerous. They had probably been told it was not.
I don’t believe in this assassination theory and never have. It was either an accident (which I believe) or a falling out among thieves (there has been no evidence of this among these people) or one person eliminating the others for greater profit (ridiculous theory since it took so long for Litvinenko to die). Also the danger of contaminating themselves and the real kicker of using the goods to eliminate anyone. Profit is all to these people. It would be easier to run over them with a car. Or shoot them. Cheaper too.
Another theory is what a poster said several days ago. I forget who. It could be a blackmail scheme and the pay-off was saturated with polonium. And they became contaminated when they counted the money and since Litvinenko probably got the most money since it might have been his scheme he got the largest dose. But that theory doesn’t explain the spill in the room and the teacup. All these loose ends. But it is all coming together. Proof the polonium was not coming from Russia. Proof that there were runs before Nov l. Proof there was smuggling whether on a small or large scale is the question) but maybe large since the authorities are on high alert for a dirty bomb. Russia might be questioning Lugovoi and Kovtun because they are worried a dirty bomb might be meant for them. And with Bereszovsky involved that is possible.
I really cannot see how the alpha-radiation would be detectable on a cup if it was not through gamma radiation. Estimates show that 1/100000 of the radiation emitted by Po-210 is gamma. I don’t know how sophisiticated their detectors are, but it would indicate that we’re talking a large amount of Po. Alternatively, he could have been drinking out of a cup designated to the room which may have been much more sparesely rinsed.
I can’t see how the cup could have been so contaminated if the money was contaminated (I was one of the ppl suggesting that theory btw). Unless they’ve found it on the outside of the cup and he was counting the money as he was sipping his tea (talk about speculation).
an article I read said that if a glass container holding po were damaged the polonium would rise up the sides and spill over the top on to surfaces…does that makes sense to any scientists out there
Why are the Russians still denying the Brits access to Lugovoy?
Why haven’t the Russians taken both Kovtun and Lugovoy into custody?
Why is the PO found in the apts of Kovtun’s ex-wife and former Mother-in-law and not in his own apartment?
How can we be sure that he wasn’t an unwitting career and not a smuggler?
Is it possible that the acid etched the glaze off the cup and in the process allowed the PO to soak into it, making its detection possible even after several washings?
I’m no scientist, but I do recall warnings not to drink out of cups in public places where the glaze has been eroded because TB can be transmitted that way.
What’s really interesting in all of this is that Kovtov was actually caught RED HANDED when he signed the document in Hamburg Oct. 30…he had it on his hands – so Clarice did he wash his hands with polonium soap?
**unwitting CARRIER********
Kovtun could be both — someone who believes himself to be a smuggler and is following through in that, when he is actually an unwitting character in an assassination, as well. That part is actually not the most important aspect, as the Germans have said (paraphrasing) — “let the British handle the murder investigation.”
Just based on what the Germans are saying, Kovtun’s up to his neck. Is he in Russian custody? Is he under arrest in the hospital? If so, why doesn’t his lawyer know that? Why are he and Lugovoi making phone calls to the press from their hospital rooms when they’re “too ill to be questioned”?
A source from British secrurity leaked to the press that the p-210 involved had Russian origins. When that was widely reported, no other source stepped forward to claim that wasn’t the case — so for my money, I trust what appears to be a deliberate Brit intel leak on this: the po-210 was Russian, not Iranian, etc.
It’s gone through Germany. It’s been in Britain, all over London.
Where is the po-210 now?
Why aren’t the Russians openly cooperating and sharing what they know — as other countries are — in tracking the contamination through Moscow?
So many questions, and most of them are piling up at the Russian border.
Exactly, mariposa.
Also, I find it unlikely that if Kovtun knew the properties of PO 210 and how it could be traced and its capacity to injure that he’s have brought it so close to his own family.
If based on a false report that the stuff originated in Germany, not Russia, AJ was so sure it scotched the Russian assassination theory, why doesn’t the fact that we know it did originate in Russia, make that theory the N. 1 option again?
Clarice,
the answer to your question is “not likely”. My point about the tea cup is the difference between porcelain and biological tissue. As you know porcelain is very strong and resistent to a lot of conditions. The amoungt of acid required to etch the cup would have made the tea taste terrible and burn horribly. For the cup to hold the poison to be drunk by Litvinenko Litvinenko would have died much quicker and with much worse symptons early on.
That is why I think it is the final determining clue. If it is determine the cup did come into contact with Polonium 210 in amounts much greater than those found in Litvinenko I doubt this was an assassination. And this all begs the question – is there more Polonium 210 out there? The real tragedy behind the assassination theory is it could lead people to believe the Polonium threat is contained to the assassin’s victim. I doubt authorities are being that pollyanish.
Clarice, it’s possible that an etched glaze could allow more Po to attach to its surface, but I consider it unlikely. We can’t compare it to TB. The organism causing TB is (MTU), although invisible to the naked eye, an enormous object compared to single Po molecules (or their ions/complexes), given that it’s an organism that can reproduce itself, a small particle of MTU left since a washing could multiply on the surface, and increase between washings, so that the trace remains and may enter another host.
On the matter of a dirty bomb, it’s interesting that in 2005 Berezovsky claimed that the Chechens had ‘lately come into possession of an atomic bomb’. “It is a small portable device which had not been used until now for only one reason: because some necessary element was missing,†he said citing what he referred to as “credible sourcesâ€. A Russian security official replied at that time: “We do not believe it necessary to comment on statements, especially nonsensical ones, made by people placed on international wanted list.†While the article at Mosnews features a picture of a suitcase nuke, perhaps Berezovsky had something else in mind. http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/02/08/berezobomb.shtml
Correction – Po *atoms* (not molecules).
Well the authorities shouldn’t be sanguine about the possibility of other unaccountedf for PO 210 being around and must track it and any possible smuggling operation down.
Here’s my theory(unscientific as it is) on the cup):The assassin etched the cup–either because the PO was in an acid solution or before touching it with PO in order to be certain that enough PO penetrated the cup so that Litvinenko had to take a fatal does..The acid was rinsed off and the cup dried before it was put before him. But if the PO had penetrated thru the glaze into the pottery or porcelain itself it might survive several washings..in the same way that TB bacillus once it pentrated thry defective glaze or thru a crack does, making subsequent washings ineffective in removing it.
Oh yes… and polonium can be used as a trigger for a nuclear device…