I agree - way too messy for a hit by anyone in the Russian government - no way they've lost all their expertise.
This is something else gone wrong. Will be interesting to see just what. I guess if this guy was providing polonium-210 to terrorists to make a dirty bomb, he got his just deserts.
It was not really a messy hit. They did not discover the Polonium until a few days prior to Litvinenko dieing. It took them over a month to discover it and the way they positively identified the Polonium made it impossible for Scotland Yard or any Police Agency to identify the Polonium. It was only discovered by Atomic Weapon Scientist who developed a new method to isolate the Polonium from the organics. The Scientists were shocked to discover an alpha emitter. This was a new Radiation weapon. If the alpha emitter was not discovered, we would have no idea what killed him and England would be contaminated and may not even know it was contaminated. Meters have to be within centimeters of an alpha emitter to measure the radiation. Look, the Russian were flying airplanes, attending Soccer games, staying in Hotels and traveling within Germany without setting off any radiation detectors. Thank god that the British Atomic Weapons Scientists positively identified this alpha emitter. Speaking of dirty bombs, it is just as likely the the Russians were the ones making the dirty bomb as it is likely that Chechen Islamists were making the dirty bomb. We simply do not know the full story yet.