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Panorama: Kremlin brands Alexander Litvinenko's widow "a liar"
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The Kremlin has angrily branded Alexander Litvinenko's widow Marina "a liar" after she told Panorama: " I cannot say exactly that Putin killed my husband, Sasha (Litvinenko), but I can say that Putin is behind everything that happens in Russia. It couldn't happen without his knowledge."
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Responding to the statement – President Vladimir Putin's press spokesman, Dimitry Peskov, tells Panorama: How To Poison A Spy (to be shown on 91Èȱ¬ One, Monday 22 January, 8.30pm): "Indirectly, she says that Russia has done it. I answer directly that Russia has not done it and it is absurd even to think about it."
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Asked if he regards Marina Litvinenko as a liar, Peskov responds "Yes. If she says that Russia has killed Sasha, she's a liar for these words."
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The programme's investigation into the death of the former Russian spy has found that it is likely that there were multiple attempts to poison Litvinenko with Polonium 210, the first as early as two weeks before he visited the London Sushi Bar on 1 November 2006, with academic Mario Scaramella.
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The first attempted poisoning may have taken place at the same restaurant, in Piccadilly Circus, but earlier when Litvinenko met two former KGB men there back on 16 October.
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The contamination in the restaurant was not found where Litvinenko and Scaramella met on 1 November but at another location, most likely at the seats where Litvinenko met the Russian businessmen.
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The Sushi Bar was contaminated when Litvinenko, met ex-KGB men Andrei Lugovoi and Dimitri Kovtun in October. Lugovoi was once a KGB officer and is now a millionaire, while his friend, Kovtun, also ex-KGB, has lived a shadowy life in Germany.
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Scaramella says that he had no knowledge of how the sushi bar became contaminated: "Well I don't know. I know they closed it because they found the polonium, but seems it was not in the place where we seated. So lots of things must be clarified. Where we seated there is no polonium."
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A number of other sites, including a Knightsbridge hotel visited by the two ex-KGB men, have already been found to be contaminated.
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Panorama has discovered that Aldermaston (the atomic weapons research centre which tried to locate the source of the polonium) got Scaramella's test results wrong – and that he was not contaminated with polonium.
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The first test was based on the wrong type of radiation reading – which produced a wildly inaccurate result. Two subsequent and more substantial tests showed that Scaramella was negative. It was reported that Scaramella had tested positive for a massive dose of polonium.
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Scaramella describes the information passed to him from Litvinenko.
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He says: "He co-operated for three years with us. He passed such strong information. Some of this information was lethal information shall we say. Other people have been killed for this kind of co-operation."
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Asked if he had any part in the poison plot Scaramella says: "Absolutely not. Not only I have not killed him, of course, but I think my role in this history is very marginal. I simply meet him, in the same day something horrible happened. It was something much much bigger than me, so, absolutely any role in this history."
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Litvinenko's widow Marina is interviewed for the programme and says: "I knew about two meetings, with Scaramella, when Sasha (Litvinenko) had lunch, and second meeting, with Lugavoi, very short meeting he told me, very short, just like a few minutes."
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Marina explained that Litvinenko met the ex-KGB men on another occasion and that his tea may have been spiked.
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She said: "At Millennium Hotel Sasha told me he met Lugovoi and during this meeting he had drunk tea... and he said it was tea already served, on the table, and he just took this cup of tea, and he, he didn't finished at all, and how he later said tea wasn't very tasty, 'cos it was cold."
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Panorama has also tracked down a potential witness Mikhail Trepashkin, who Scotland Yard have not yet been able to talk to.
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Trepashkin is a former FSB (Russian Secret Service) officer who was thrown in jail while investigating the Moscow flat bombs which were blamed on Chechen terrorists, although some people such as Litvinenko claimed that the Security Services were responsible for the attacks.
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Speaking on a mobile phone smuggled into his prison, Trepashkin explained how his FSB boss back in 2001 had Litvinenko in his sights.
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"He asked me to go and find out the route to Litvinenko, where he works, his pattern of movements, his meeting places. He said find out what book he's writing. I realised they wanted to send one person to find out his whereabouts and the group will follow."
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Panorama also visits Laboratory Number 12 in Moscow, once a KGB poison factory.
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A former Soviet intelligence officer, who preferred to remain anonymous – said about the factory: "It's the laboratory that every year gets it budget to work with radioactive poisons."
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Panorama has also obtained a document classified as Top Secret by the Italian government – in which Litvinenko accuses Romano Prodi, the former President of the European Commission, and now Italy's Prime Minister, of being a friend of the KGB.
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Before his death Litvinenko collaborated with Scaramella on his KGB mole-hunt in Italy, feeding him with highly sensitive information on KGB operations.
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Scaramella tells Panorama that Litvinenko was warned off defecting to Italy.
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He said: "His idea when he left Moscow was to arrive in Italy and he mentioned a friend, a colleague in the secret service who told him that you cannot go to Italy because there are some big friends of Russia in this country."
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Asked by Panorama's John Sweeney " Do you think Prodi was a KGB spy?", Scaramella says: "No, I ... I don't think nothing. I think nothing about that.
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"I simply collected from different people some information about him, about the past, about the present. Some qualified sources, including Litvinenko, told me that some officers in Moscow considered him as their man, KGB man."
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Prodi has always denied any allegations that he has links with the KGB.
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Notes to Editors
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Any use of the above should be credited to Panorama: How to Poison a Spy - Monday 22 January, 8.30pm, 91Èȱ¬ One.
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