FACTBOX-Facts about poisoned former spy Litvinenko
24 Nov 2006 00:01:59 GMT Source: Reuters
Nov 23 (Reuters) - Former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, poisoned in London three weeks ago, died on Thursday, the hospital treating him said. Following are some key facts about Litvinenko: * Litvinenko served in the KGB's counter-intelligence department and then the Federal Security Service's (FSB) highly secret organised crime group. The FSB is the main successor organisation to the Soviet KGB and deals with internal threats. * In 1998, he turned on his former comrades and claimed at a Moscow press conference -- with men in masks who claimed to be Russian secret service men -- that senior FSB officers had planned to murder Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky. * He was arrested several times by the FSB, his former employer, but was freed by a court and charges were dropped. In 2000 he fled to Britain with his wife and son and was granted asylum. * In London, Litvinenko mixed with some of the Kremlin's adversaries including Berezovsky and Chechen separatist leader Akhmed Zakayev. * Litvinenko co-authored a book in 2002 entitled "Blowing up Russia: Terror from Within", in which he alleged FSB agents co-ordinated apartment block bombings in Russia that killed more than 300 people in 1999. * A Russian court in 2002 tried him in absentia for misuse of office, stealing explosive material and the illegal purchase and storing of firearms and ammunition. He was given a suspended sentence of three and a half years. * Russia's FSB approached Britain in 2002 with a request to question Litvinenko in connection with the 1999 apartment block bombings. * British police gave his age as 43, while some media reports said he was 41.
