[litvinenko] one or two developments

Although tests have been conducted on dozens of people who came into contact with Litvinenko after he fell ill — including the doctors who treated him — an Italian investigator named Mario Scaramella is so far the only one to show more than a negligible amount of radiation in his body. Scaramella has said all along that he felt fine. The health agency would not say how much radiation he had ingested, only that he had "a significant quantity."

Scaramella was a consultant for a parliamentary commission in Italy looking into reported connections between the KGB and Italian politicians. In the process, the group — the Mitrokhin Commission, created during the tenure of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi — created dossiers on a number of opponents of Berlusconi, including the present prime minister, Romano Prodi. It was disbanded earlier this year.

Litvinenko also worked for the Mitrokhin Commission, Goldfarb said. The two met regularly in London. Their last meeting took place at the Piccadilly branch of the Itsu sushi restaurant on Nov. 1, the day Litvinenko became sick. The Health Protection Agency also said Thursday that someone who could only have been Litvinenko’s wife "had tested positive for low levels of radiation exposure. "

Scaramella told reporters that during the meeting he presented Litvinenko with e-mailed documents showing their names on a list of people whose lives were in danger from Russian criminals. Scaramella said the same criminals had killed Anna Politkovskaya, a well-known Russian investigative journalist, in October.

Meanwhile, the 2008 question is getting closer and closer and so far there don’t appear to be any credible alternatives to Putin in the offing. A quick scan of today’s Russian news sources reveals nothing new except opinion pieces and that is truly the state of play. Countless journos are offering up opinion but the only ones who seem to have some of the facts at hand are the British investigators. As my contact said on Thursday, better to wait and see what happens.

That, of course, does not satisfy the need for a daily fix of shocking revelations and following this blog's withdrawal from the Litvinenko/Politskaya issue on Thursday came an immediate drop in site visitors. Perhaps it was just coincidence.