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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Alleged poisoning investigated | Alleged poisoning investigated |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| Scotland Yard is investigating an alleged poisoning - amid claims of an attempt to murder a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. | |
| The victim is thought to be Alexander Litvinenko, said to be a former colonel in the KGB. | |
| Several newspapers describe how he fell seriously ill after visiting a bar in London earlier this month. | |
| A Scotland Yard spokesman said the alleged victim was in a serious but stable condition in hospital. | A Scotland Yard spokesman said the alleged victim was in a serious but stable condition in hospital. |
| Mr Litvinenko is said to be a known critic of the Putin regime. | |
| Moscow murder | |
| He was said to have been at the bar, in London's Piccadilly, meeting a contact. | |
| It is thought Mr Litvinenko had been investigating the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was killed in Moscow last month. | |
| Ms Politkovskaya, a harsh critic of President Vladimir Putin and Russian policy in Chechnya, was gunned down in her apartment building. | |
| Anna Politkovskaya once fled to Austria after receiving threats | |
| She was an investigative reporter for newspaper Novaya Gazeta and was one of the few Russian journalists to write about alleged human rights abuses in Chechnya. | |
| She had received death threats in the past and suspicions were immediately raised that her death was a contract killing. | |
| Ms Politkovskaya became ill with food-poisoning on her way to report on the Beslan school siege in 2004, which some believed to be an attempt on her life. | |
| In 2001, she fled to Vienna, Austria, after receiving e-mail threats claiming a Russian police officer she had accused of committing atrocities against civilians wanted to take his revenge. | |
| Two weeks after the killing US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met relatives and colleagues of Ms Politkovskaya during a visit to Moscow. | |
| Ms Rice said the fate of journalists in Russia was "a major concern". |