Putin Faces Barrage in Death of Ex-Spy

Alexander Litvinenko, former KGB spy and author of the book "Blowing Up Russia: Terror From Within", photographed at his home in London in this Friday, May 10, 2002 file photo. Poisoned Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko died on Thursday, Nov. 23, 2006 in an intensive care ward, London's University College Hospital said. (AP Photo/Alistair Fuller) (Alistair Fuller - AP)

"It is essential that other dissidents living in Britain are reassured about their safety and there are also questions about how polonium-210 came to be used in Britain," said David Davis, the Conservative law-and-order spokesman.

Relations between Russia and Britain have remained cool since the end of the Cold War. London has infuriated Moscow by offering refuge to self-exiled tycoon Boris Berezovsky, a Kremlin critic wanted in Russia on money-laundering charges, and Akhmed Zakayev, a representative of late Chechen rebel chief Aslan Maskhadov.

In January, Russia's Federal Security Service, the FSB, accused four British diplomats of spying, showing on state-run television sophisticated communications equipment concealed in a fake rock, which it said the Britons hid in a Moscow park to use to contact Russian agents.

The ex-spy's death sparked a huge public health alert, with authorities preparing to test scores of people who may have come into contact with Litvinenko for traces of radiation.

"There is a lot of radioactivity involved," the Health Protection Agency's director of radiation, chemicals and environmental hazards, Roger Cox, told Sky News television.

But the agency insisted the risk to others was low because polonium-210 can only contaminate if it is ingested, inhaled or taken in through a wound.

Litvinenko's contaminated body was released to a coroner late Saturday, and government pathologists were awaiting advice on whether it was safe to perform an autopsy.

On Sunday, Alexander Lebedev, a former KGB spy who is a member of the Russian parliament, said Putin's government played no part in the death.

"I completely rule out the possibility of that being done on official orders from anyone in the authorities," Lebedev told Sky News.

The Sunday Times reported that as he lay dying, Litvinenko named an alleged Russian agent he feared had been sent to hunt him down. Litvinenko claimed the Russian agent was not directly involved in his poisoning but had been sent to monitor his activities, the newspaper said.

Police said they could not immediately confirm whether officers would seek to interview the alleged Russian agent. The Foreign Office said it has asked Moscow for help with the investigation.

Litvinenko worked for the KGB and its successor, the FSB. In 1998, he publicly accused his superiors of ordering him to kill Berezovsky and spent nine months in jail from 1999 on charges of abuse of office. He was later acquitted and in 2000 sought asylum in Britain.

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Associated Press writers Steve Gutterman in Moscow and David Stringer in London contributed to this report.