The First Assassination of the 21st Century

And although they may not have understood the risks they were taking, whoever masterminded the killing had clearly researched their weapon to some extent. Nick Priest, a professor of radiobiology at Middlesex University in England, estimates that it would have taken a few days in a reactor to produce the amount of polonium-210 delivered to Litvinenko. Polonium-210 has a half-life of 138 days, meaning half of it will decay in about four and a half months. So the assassins must have planned the operation well in advance and then acted promptly. Also, the choice of polonium itself suggests a certain sophistication. "They knew they could move it across borders because there is no gamma radiation," Priest says. "They knew that it would be taken up by gut. And they knew it was obscure. Even when doctors knew it was radiation [that was killing Litvinenko], they still didn't think of polonium." Now, of course, scientists and police think of little else.

Why, given all the methods available, did Litvinenko's killers choose polonium, rather than a knife across the throat, or a bullet to the head? "I think they supposed Litvinenko would die quickly," says Vladimir Ryzhkov, an independent member of the Russian parliament, "and that specialists wouldn't find out what substance was used. Polonium decays rapidly, so they may have expected no traces would be left behind and the British would say the cause of death was unknown."

In Russian political life, assassins who wish to remain anonymous often hide behind obscure methods [see "101 Ways to Die," page 80]. "You only need exotic ways of killing people when you don't want the truth to be revealed," says Alexei Kondaurov, a former KGB general who is now a parliamentarian critical of Putin's government. "But science has come a long way, and with modern methods of analysis, it's almost impossible to hide the truth."

Concern about contamination delayed Litvinenko's autopsy for a week, as officials discussed the precautions that had to be taken in cutting the dead man open. When the postmortem finally did take place, ventilation in the operating theater was switched off to prevent any wayward polonium-210 becoming airborne, according to someone familiar with the procedure. Everyone stripped to their underwear before donning two separate impervious plastic suits, as well as a cylindrical shawl and helmet combination that slipped over their heads and shoulders like a beekeeper's outfit. Filtration units slung on their belts pumped scrubbed air into the suits. Tissue samples were passed through an airlock to a waiting pathologist, while a radiation-protection official continually monitored the room for alpha particles.

Wet Work

The former Soviet Union has always been one of the world's premiere think tanks for exotic assassination methods. In the 1930s, Stalin established a secret branch of the KGB with the fearsome name "The Administration for Special Tasks." The Administration had a medical section called Kamera solely devoted to the development of exotic poisons and toxins. The "special tasks" this group administered consisted of what was known in the espionage jargon of the day as wet work: abducting and/or assassinating perceived "enemies of the people," wherever in the world they might be. One KGB memo stated, "As these traitors . . . have been sentenced to death in their absence, this sentence will be carried out abroad."