Russian Spy Alexander Litvinenko Dies, page 1

Former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko has died in a London Hospital. The man who claimed to have been poisened by his former employer's has died after battling his illness for nearly a month. Litvinenko was a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimar Putin, which many believe lead to his death.

www.usatoday.com
Litvinenko, a fierce critic of the Russian government, suffered a rapid deterioration in his health on Thursday, but doctors still were unable to determine the cause of the 43-year-old's death, a spokesman said in a statement. Doctors have virtually ruled out thallium and radiation — toxins once considered possible culprits behind the poisoning.

Litvinenko believes he was given poison on Nov. 1, while investigating the slaying of another Kremlin detractor — investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

On Wednesday, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, the SVR, issued its strongest denial yet that it was involved in any assassination attempt. "Litvinenko is not the kind of person for whose sake we would spoil bilateral relations," SVR spokesman Sergei Ivanov said, according to the Interfax news agency. "It is absolutely not in our interests to be engaged in such activity."

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Such a shame...