The Litvinenko Inquiry

Part 6 | Chapters 1 to 8 | The polonium trail – events in October and November 2006
6.318 Several of the results, however, are worthy of particular attention.
6.319 Secondary contamination was found in room 441, the room shared by Mr Lugovoy
and his wife and young son. Very much higher readings were, however, found in room
382, which was shared by Mr Kovtun and Mr Sokolenko. The highest readings were
found in the bathroom and the highest of those readings was found in a sediment
trap below the plughole in that bathroom. The expert evidence of A1 was that these
readings were only consistent with primary contamination. 296 It therefore appeared that
polonium in one form or another had been poured down the plughole. The comparison
with the contamination found in room 107 at the Best Western Hotel is striking.
6.320 Very high readings, which in A1’s view were also consistent with primary contamination,
were additionally found in two places in the Pine Bar.
6.321 In the bar itself, primary contamination was found on the table which Mr Andrade
had described as table 1 (in fact, two tables pushed together) and also on one of the
chairs at the next table. It is to be noted that there was a gap of several weeks after
1 November before the Pine Bar was sealed as a crime scene, and Mr Andrade’s
evidence was that the chairs in the bar, and also on occasions the tables, were
sometimes moved around. 297
296
A1 20/65-68
297
Andrade 16/140-141
175