Talk:Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

Gaidar Poisoning
This article assumes, incorrectly, that Yegor Gaidar was poisoned in the course of his visit to Ireland. There is absolutely no evidence of poisoning in this case. Yegor Gaidar was taken ill at Maynooth College near Dublin on the day of Litvinenko's death. He began to bleed from the nose and appeared to be unconscious for a short time. A member of the Russian group attending the Maynooth conference noted that Gaidar had begun to feel ill during a stop-over at Ferihegy Airport in Budapest on his way to Ireland. Gaidar suffers from hypertension and diabetes and doctors who examined him at the scene said his condition was consistent with these ailments. Gaidar was taken to the James Connolly Memorial Hospital at Blanchardstown near Dublin where his condition was regarded not to be life-threatening.

An Garda Siochana, the Irish national police force, conducted an investigation into the event. No traces of polonium or any other poisonous or toxic substance were found at any place in which Gaidar was present. The investigation into the Maynooth event was not and is not part of an "ongoing investigation in the UK and in Ireland" since the event had absolutely no connection with the UK and the investigation in the Republic of Ireland has been completed. Yegor Timurevich Gaidar was released from hospital the following morning and spent the day at the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Dublin where, according to Embassy sources, he was well enough to consume a considerable amount of vodka.

On his return to Russia Gaidar checked himself into a clinic in which the doctors stated that it would be contrary to their medical ethics to declare him a poisoning victim. Gaidar believed he was poisoned but the reason he gave for this was not entirely logical. In short he has stated that since the Russian doctors could not find a reason for his illness it must, therefore, have been due to poisoning. - Seamusfmartin (talk) 11:32, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Murder is not likely
The entire premise of this article seems unlikely. Polonium is exceptionally rare and very expense to produce. Why would a nation in the midst of economic collapse use 4-5 million dollars worth of a rare element to murder someone? A bullet or knife is cheaper and very reliable.

A more likely explanation is they were smuggling the polonium out to one of the several organizations that hold missing Russian tactical nuclear weapons. Those weapons use polonium triggers. The polonium in these would have decayed decades ago and therefore be useless. This sounds like a botched mule operation. - HP Controls - — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hpcontrols (talk • contribs) 15:21, 3 June 2011 (UTC)

"Possibly related events" section: Yasser Arafat polonium murder link claim
These discuss the Yasser Arafat polonium murder link claim:

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/10/15/yasser-arafat-poisoned-polonium-litvinenko_n_4099837.html http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/yasser-arafat-poisoned-polonium-also-2372116

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Al-Jazeera-Others-Spread-by-William-Dunkerley-120811-171.html

http://www.interfax.com/newsinf.asp%253Fid%253D344808 — Preceding unsigned comment added by Switchcraft (talk • contribs) 13:13, 22 July 2014 (UTC)

Operation Beluga
Why is there not a single word about operation Beluga? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.82.33.171 (talk) 00:15, 8 March 2018 (UTC)

Chronological issues in lead section ?
I am referring the the lines " In 1998, Litvinenko and several other Russian intelligence officers said they were ordered to kill Boris Berezovsky, a Russian businessman. After that, the Russian government began to persecute Litvinenko. He fled to the UK, where he criticised the Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian government" in the lead section. "

Is it not that he first fled to the UK, and then the russian government started criticising him ? Alexandria Bucephalous (talk) 12:09, 29 April 2023 (UTC)