LONDON—An ex-KGB spy accused Vladimir Putin of his murder on Friday in a statement read out after his slow death from radiation poisoning, but the Russian president brushed off the accusations as "political provocation".
London said it had raised with Moscow the "serious matter" of Alexander Litvinenko's death. Britain held a meeting of COBRA, its top-level cabinet team which gathers for civil emergencies, a Home Office (interior ministry) spokeswoman said.
British health officials said a rare radioactive isotope, polonium 210, had been discovered in the body of the 43-year-old Kremlin critic who died overnight in a London hospital.
"You may succeed in silencing one man. But a howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Mr. Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life," Litvinenko said in a statement read out by friends outside the hospital where he died.
"May God forgive you for what you have done, not only to me but to beloved Russia and its people."
Police were trying to work out how the radioactive poison entered the body of Litvinenko who wasted away over three weeks, losing all his hair.
Britain's Health Protection Agency said radiation was found at a sushi bar where Litvinenko met an Italian academic and at a hotel where he met another former Russian agent, both on the day he fell ill. His home also showed traces of radiation.
'Major Dose'
"We know he had a major dose," HPA chief Pat Troop said. Police were seen carrying metal boxes away from the sushi restaurant in central London.
"My son died yesterday. He was killed by a little tiny nuclear bomb," Litvinenko's weeping father Walter said.
Dr Andrea Sella, lecturer in chemistry at University College London, told Reuters polonium 210 was one of the rarest substances on the planet and few could obtain it.
"This is not some random killing. This is not a tool chosen by a group of amateurs. These people had some serious resources behind them," he said.
The dead man's allegation of what would amount to the first Kremlin assassination carried out in the West since the Cold War dogged Putin at an EU summit in Helsinki. Putin said there was no evidence implicating the Kremlin.
"It is a great pity that even something as tragic as a man's death is being used for political provocation," Putin said. "I hope the British authorities would not contribute to instigating political scandals. It has nothing to do with reality."
Litvinenko, who became a British citizen last month, was one of a group of Putin opponents who have clustered in London, including billionaire Boris Berezovsky and Chechen separatists, frequently attracting Moscow's scorn.
A British Foreign Office spokeswoman said it had discussed the affair at "routine meetings" with Russian embassy officials.
"We've obviously raised it and said that this is a serious matter," she said, declining to comment further because of the ongoing investigation.
A Russian ex-spy came forward in Moscow to acknowledge that he was the man who met Litvinenko at a London hotel with two other Russians the day he suddenly fell ill. The man, Andrei Lugovoy, told a Russian newspaper they had discussed "business".
Lugovoy met British diplomats in Moscow on Thursday and said he would answer any questions from police about the affair. British anti-terrorism police investigating the case said officers could go to Russia to talk to him.
European countries depend on Putin's Russia for natural gas and have big investments in oil companies there. Putin has been an ally of the West against Islamic extremism since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
But relations have been strained in recent years over what Western governments call Moscow's slide toward authoritarianism.
Litvinenko had been investigating the killing of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, also a vocal critic of Putin, who was gunned down at the Moscow flat last month.
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