A sushi stop, a cup of tea: The probe deepens

LONDON, Saturday (AP) - A swanky hotel bar where a former Russian spy sipped tea before his poisoning death. A sushi restaurant where he ate a bowl of soup.

Alexander Litvinenko's last steps in the English capital are being traced to pinpoint how the fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin could have been poisoned by Polonium-210, a rare radioactive substance that killed the former agent.

Radioactive traces have been found at both haunts in London _ the Millennium Hotel's dimly lit Turner Bar near the U.S. embassy in Grosvenor Square and Itsu Sushi near Picadilly Circus _ as investigators try to piece together details of what company he was keeping in his last days and who might have wanted to kill him.

Most clues point to the two meetings Litvinenko had before he was taken to the emergency room suffering from stomach pains and nausea.

On the morning of Nov. 1, the former agent met with another former KGB spy Andrei Lugovoy _ who had come to watch the Russian soccer team CSKA Moscow _ and two other men he had never met before.

Drinking a cup of tea the men had ordered, Litvinenko discussed a joint business venture and said he was homesick for Russia. Friends say it was his patriotism coupled with a sense of false protection from his British asylum that prompted him to reach out to potential Russian dissenters who might have bolstered allegations that Putin's government was involved in corruption in the spy service.

''Alex was open to approaches from people who said they had information about abuses in Russia,'' friend Alex Goldfarb told The Associated Press. ''He would meet people without precautions, because he felt as a British citizen, he would be protected from falling prey to Russian government forces.''

Lowering his guard around Lugovoy and the two men, Litvinenko told the table of his next meeting.

He said he was planning on meeting a contact who claimed to have information about the slaying of his friend, investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya -- a death that critics of the Russian government have blamed on state security forces.

That meeting happened the same day in the afternoon at the Itsu Sushi bar near Piccadilly Circus.

It was a frequent rendezvous point for him and his friend, Italian academic Mario Scaramella, who brought an e-mail with a list of names _ which allegedly identified emigres to Britain being targeted by Russian agents as well as the identities of the journalist's killers. The academic said the list had been sent to him, but he declined to reveal his source.

Litvinenko helped himself to a bowl of soup before he headed for a table where the two could discuss the secret e-mail.

Akhmed Zakayev -- a Chechen rebel exiled in London and a Putin critic -- saw Litvinenko after the sushi meal and said he was excited by the meeting, but Goldfarb said after Litvinenko carefully read and analyzed the four-page e-mail, he doubted its authenticity.

Hours after the sushi bar meeting, Litvinenko was taken to Barnet General Hospital with stomach pains.

After more than two weeks in the hospital, his condition grew gradually worse.

In a weakened state, he gave an interview to the British Broadcasting Corp.'s Russian Service, saying for the first time that he thought he had been poisoned.

Unable to determine the cause of his illness, doctors transferred Litvinenko to a specialist unit at the University College Hospital, in central London, on Nov. 17.

After initially thinking the poisoning was due to thallium _ a diagnosis that came as Litvinenko's organs began to fail --it was later revealed he had been poisoned by a radioactive substance.

He died late Thursday night with investigators later saying he had been poisoned with radioactive Polonium-210, a rare substance that would be virtually impossible for most to get.

''We will trace possible witnesses, examine Mr Litvinenko's movements at relevant times, including when he first became ill and identify people he may have met. There will also be an extensive examination of CCTV footage,'' said Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke.