Posted on 11/30/2006 3:24:37 PM PST by sonsofliberty2000
Doctors treating former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar, who is gravely ill, believe he was poisoned. It follows the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko from poisoning and the discovery of radioactive material at 12 UK sites as four BA planes were grounded.
The call came as an aide to Mr Gaidar revealed doctors treating the formier Premier in Dublin believe he has been poisoned.
"Doctors don't see a natural reason for the poisoning and they have not been able to detect any natural substance known to them" in Gaidar's body, spokesman Valery Natarov said. "So obviously we're talking about poisoning (and) it was not natural poisoning."
Gaidar, 50, one of the leaders of a liberal opposition party who served briefly as prime minister in the 1990s under President Boris Yeltsin, began vomiting and fainted during a conference in Ireland on Friday, and was rushed into intensive care at a hospital.
Gaidar's illness follows the poisoning of former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko, who died in London just one day before Gaidar fell ill.
The incident came amid heightened suspicions in the UK about the poisoning of former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko, who died a day before Mr Gaidar fell ill. The former spy worked as a bodyguard to Mr Gaidar at one point during his career.
Ireland's Green Party today called for emergency radioactivity tests at all the sites visited by former Russian prime minister.
Anatoly Chubais, a top Yeltsin-era government official and now head of the national electricity monopoly, said Wednesday that he suspected a link between Gaidar's illness, Litvinenko's death and last month's murder of investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya.
Natarov said Gaidar was feeling better today. "His condition is stable and improving. Doctors say there is no threat to his life at the moment."
Earlier today a fourth aircraft became embroiled in the public health scare surrounding the death of Litvinenko, Home Secretary John Reid revealed today.
Officials are due to examine a Boeing 737 leased to Transaero - Russia's first privately-owned airline - which touched down at London Heathrow from Moscow this morning.
Mr Reid told the Commons: "A fourth aircraft of interest which is a Boeing 737 leased by Transaero arrived at London Heathrow Terminal One this morning.
"Passenger details will be collected and the Health Protection Agency (HPA) will contact individuals if any matters of concern are found."
Mr Reid was flanked by Mrs Beckett as he made his statement to the Commons after traces of the radioactive isotope polonium-210 were found in Mr Litvinenko's urine and at several locations in London.
Speaker Michael Martin waived strict application of the sub judice rule in the wake of the opening of an inquest into the death earlier today but cautioned MPs to bear this in mind when commenting.
Mr Reid said: "To date, around 24 venues have or are being monitored and experts have confirmed traces of contamination at around 12 of these venues.
"It is probable that the investigation will continue to bring additional locations to our attention for screening.
"I would stress that the HPA continues to reassure members of the public that the risk of exposure to this substance remains low."
By late last night, NHS Direct had received about 1,700 calls relating to the incident and 69 people had been referred to the HPA as a precaution.
Fifty two people had been contacted and 18 referred to a special clinic or an appropriate clinic in their area.
"To date 29 urine tests have been returned, none of the results show any cause for concern."
The ex-KGB agent became violently ill and subsequently died after apparently being poisoned with radioactive polonium 210.
BA is focusing its inquiries on four flights made by its jets between Heathrow-Moscow and Moscow-Heathrow between October 25 and November 3.
More than 200 flights between Heathrow and Barcelona, Dusseldorf, Athens, Larnaca, Stockholm, Vienna, Frankfurt, Istanbul and Madrid from October 25 to November 28 could also have been affected.
Two of the aircraft have already tested positive for an unidentified radioactive substance and the third was last night on the runway at Moscow's Domodedovo airport on Government orders.
The grounded planes each carry up to 250 passengers and are part of British Airways' short-haul Boeing 767 fleet.
BA boss Willie Walsh said: 'The aircraft involved have been withdrawn from service and will remain out of service until we're satisfied that all necessary steps have been taken. At this stage, we want to reassure our customers in relation to this. The advice that we have is that the risk to public health is actually very, very low.'
The initial results of forensic tests confirmed very low traces of a radioactive substance yesterday afternoon. Sources said it could not have been naturally-occurring.
The first flight was grounded when it landed at Heathrow from Vienna on Tuesday night. It had flown to the Austrian capital after failing to land in Warsaw due to poor weather.
Yesterday morning, a flight from Athens was grounded when it arrived at Heathrow at 11am. Several seats at different locations on the plane are understood to have been taped off.
Then a flight from Heathrow to Moscow was intended to return to the UK with passengers. But BA was ordered to ground the plane by the British authorities.
The airline is understood to have put into force a crisis-response team to deal with the incident.
Last night, the Home Office said the tests were to assess whether there was any risk to public health.
The decision to ground three commercial passenger planes is another extension of the net which has already seen searches for signs of contamination at a string of London locations.
It throws the spotlight back on to a meeting that Mr Litvinenko had with another former KGB agent, Andrei Lugovoy, in London's Millennium Hotel on the day he was apparently poisoned with polonium 210.
Two Russians who met Mr Litvinenko in the hotel that day are thought to have travelled on the grounded aircraft. Security sources described yesterday's developments as 'potentially very significant'.
If police discover traces of polonium 210 on an aircraft that travelled to London before November 1, when Mr Litvikenko became ill, the finger of blame for the poisoning would point to Moscow. Meanwhile, the Health Protection Agency revealed that as of midnight last night, NHS Direct had received 1,325 calls from members of the public worried about radiation contamination.
Mr Litvinenko died a week ago after ingesting a dose of polonium 210 - a toxin 250billion times deadlier than cyanide. On his deathbed, he pinned the blame on Russian President Vladimir Putin, a claim denied by the Kremlin.
Police are investigating a series of meetings Mr Litvinenko had before he became ill, including the November 1 hotel encounter with Mr Lugovoy.
Mr Lugovoy has said: 'I have the feeling that someone is trying to set me up as the fall guy.'
Also at the hotel were Dmitri Kovtun and Vyacheslav Sokolenko, Russian business associates of Mr Lugovoy. The men deny involvement. Earlier that day, Mr Litvinenko went to the Itsu sushi restaurant, where he met Italian professor Mario Scaramella. He is being interviewed by detectives. Last night his lawyer Sergio Rastrelli said: 'Mario is in the clear.'
Almost 50 staff at the two hospitals which treated Mr Litvinenko are being tested to see if they have been contaminated by radiation. A post-mortem examination will be carried out on Mr Litvinenko's body tomorrow.
The HPA confirmed last night that traces of polonium 210 had been found at Down Street and Grosvenor Street in London.
The Grosvenor Street address houses the headquarters of international security company Erinys, visited by Mr Litvinenko.
The address in Down Street was the office of exiled billionaire Boris Berezovsky, a friend of Mr Litvinenko.
BA says it is especially keen to contact passengers from these four flights: • BA875 Moscow-Heathrow on October 25. • Aircraft number GBNWX • BA872 Heathrow-Moscow on October 28. • Aircraft number GBNWX • BA873 Moscow-Heathrow on October 31. • Aircraft number GBNWB • BA874 Heathrow-Moscow on November 3. • Aircraft number GBZHA The BA website is www.ba.com, or call 0845 604 0171 or international helpline 0191 211 3690.
Egad. The Borgias were pikers.
Maybe I need to look in Pootie-Poot's eyes and check on the state of his soul again.
Yikes ! So is Chavez also going to call Putin the Devil ?
Putin sold his soul to a Middle Eastern genie called the Mahdi. That genie is apparently starting to grant Putin his wishes now.
lol
And we think W has a PR problem ?
Where is all of this going, I wonder?
As a true Russian tyrant, Vlad Putin
Feels fondness for rulin' an' lootin';
He hides behind smiles,
Usin' KGB wiles
To assassinate foes without shootin'.
Polonium killed Litvinenko,
Delivered by serpentine foe;
In Moscow, still smiling,
Vlad Putin's beguiling
While re-staging Joe Stalin's show.
It was his heart you could see into, not his soul.
The contamination is strange. The polonium would be smuggled in a very small sealed container. The container would stop any radiation (alpha) and there is no reason for any polonium to escape the container.
It is almost like someone trying to paint a trail back to Moscow with polonium contamination. This does not pass the smell test.
The contamination was from people returning to Russia who had encountered Litvinenko during the period after he was irradiated and before he went into the hospital. Some of the planes had cycled back and forth multiple times, that why some were at Heathrow and others at Domodevo.
How could Litvinenko contaminate the two Russians when he apparently has not contaminated anyone else in England ?
Don't know. There must be a reason.
It was reported that one of the planes contaminated only listed a suspect Russian as a passenger *prior* to their meeting with Litveninko. One possible explanation. The Russians from Moscow were the carriers. Litveninko was only the target.
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