Poisoning investigation lands in Germany

BERLIN – The mystery surrounding the poisoning death of a former Russian spy has veered into Germany, where investigators on Saturday found traces of radiation in an apartment connected to a businessman who met the spy on the day he fell ill.

Police said “hints” of radiation were detected in the Hamburg flat of Dmitry Kovtun’s ex-wife. Traces also were discovered in the nearby suburban home of the former wife’s mother. Kovtun met ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko on Nov. 1 in London, where police suspect he was exposed to the radioactive polonium-210 that killed him three weeks later.

A Russian businessman, Kovtun is reportedly ill in a Moscow hospital.

Chemical experts searched in Hamburg and questioned Kovtun’s 31-year-old former spouse. Authorities said that although contamination was detected, they did not find a source of radiation in either building.

Police discounted media reports suggesting that Kovtun, who reportedly lived in Germany for 12 years, planned Litvinenko’s assassination in Hamburg. No traces of radiation were discovered in Kovtun’s flat, which is in the same building as his ex-wife’s apartment in the northern port city’s Ottensen neighborhood.

“At the moment, this man has not been accused,” police spokeswoman Ulrike Sweden told German radio.

The airline Germanwings announced that one of its planes was being tested for polonium-210. A spokesman told reporters that Kovtun flew on the plane from Hamburg to Britain the day he met Litvinenko. Media reports said the tests came back negative. Police are investigating whether Kovtun returned to Hamburg after meeting in the Pine Bar at London’s Millennium Hotel.

The murder investigation has skipped across the continent and led to allegations by Litvinenko’s family that intelligence services connected to the Kremlin were behind the plot.