Poisoned Kremlin critic worsens

LONDON – A former KGB agent turned Kremlin critic who was poisoned three weeks ago was moved into intensive care Monday after his condition deteriorated, and his doctor said the toxin has attacked his bone marrow.

Col. Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB and Federal Security Bureau agent, was under armed guard at a London hospital, as authorities investigated the poisoning that has all the hallmarks of a Cold War thriller.

Prominent Russian exiles claimed Litvinenko was poisoned at the behest of the Kremlin; Russian authorities denied any link to the attack. Police counterterrorism officials have taken charge of the inquiry.

Doctors said Litvinenko was seriously ill after being given the deadly poison thallium – a toxic metal found in rat poison that has been outlawed in Britain since the 1970s, making it highly unlikely any could have gotten into his food by accident.

Photographs released by the hospital showed a wan Litvinenko in a green hospital gown, his bald head propped up by pillows, his arm hooked to an IV drip. Thallium causes hair loss and interferes with the cardiovascular and nervous systems, attacking the vital organs.

Litvinenko’s white cell count is down to nearly zero, said Dr. John Henry, a clinical toxicologist treating him, showing “his bone marrow has been attacked and that he is susceptible to infection.”

Litvinenko, who has been a thorn in the Russian government’s side since the late 1990s, fell ill after a meal with a contact who claimed to have details about the slaying of another Kremlin critic – Anna Politkovskaya, the Russian investigative journalist who was gunned down Oct. 7 in her Moscow apartment building.

Litvinenko blamed her killing on Russian President Vladimir Putin.