A second Russian businessman who met murdered ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko on the day he fell ill is now sick from radiation poisoning, local media quoted medical sources as saying today.
Andrei Lugovoy has damage to vital organs consistent with exposure to dangerous levels of radiation, Interfax news agency reported, the same condition that killed Kremlin critic Mr Litvinenko in London on November 23rd.
Mr Lugovoy's business partner Dmitry Kovtun is also in hospital and Mario Scaramella, an Italian contact of Litvinenko, has undergone treatment in London for the effects of contamination.
Mr Litvinenko, who was buried in London following a private Muslim ceremony yesterday, blamed Russian president Vladimir Putin for poisoning him, a charge the Kremlin denied. The case has revived memories of Cold War spying intrigues and strained London-Moscow relations.
Mr Lugovoy was quoted by Itar-Tass news agency as saying in a telephone interview he was "all right".
"The doctors have listed my condition as stable. Today I spent the whole day undergoing necessary medical procedures," the agency quoted him as saying.
Interfax said its information on Lugovoy's condition came from his medical notes. "Disruption in the functioning of some organs affected by radiation nuclides has been found [in Lugovoy]," it quoted a source as saying.
"Lugovoy's condition is considerably better than that of Kovtun, but he also has symptoms of contamination."