Report: Key Spy Poisoning Witness In Coma

Russian businessman Dmitry Kovtun, a key figure in the poisoning investigation of ex-security agent Alexander Litvinenko, is in a coma, a Russian news agency said Thursday, although a lawyer close to the case denied the report.

The Interfax news agency, citing unnamed sources, said Kovtun fell into a coma immediately after being questioned by Russian investigators and Scotland Yard detectives."By the doctors' diagnosis, Kovtun's condition is critical," Interfax quoted the sources as saying.

However, an anonymous source tells CBS News in Moscow that both men are in a "normal physical state" and have been receiving only out-patient treatment by health workers.

Andrei Romashov, a lawyer for another key figure in the case, told The Associated Press that he contacted Kovtun's representatives after the report and they told him Kovtun's condition was "the same as it was when he met with prosecutors." Romashov declined to name Kovtun's representatives.

Kovtun is one of at least two Russian businessmen who met Litvinenko in London's Millennium Hotel on Nov. 1, hours before the former spy fell fatally ill.

The confusion over Kovtun — who's name only came into play widely with the story earlier Thursday — came about an hour after Britain's Health Protection Agency confirmed that seven workers at the Millenium Hotel were contaminated with "low levels" of polonium-210.

The hotel workers are the first members of the general public to test positive for the rare, radioactive poison which killed Litvinenko on Nov. 23.

The news came on a rainy day that also saw billionaires, Kremlin critics and Chechen rebels gather at a famous London cemetery to mourn Litvinenko as he was laid to rest in a dark oak casket.

The ex-KGB operative's wife Marina and 12-year-old son Anatoly were consoled by self-exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky and Chechen rebel envoy Akhmed Zakayev.

Litvinenko was buried at London's famous Highgate Cemetery — the site where communist revolutionary Karl Marx was buried in the 19th Century.

Litvinenko's father, Walter, and Zakayev held a memorial at London's Regent's Park Mosque before the burial, joining hundreds of Muslims who had gathered there for regular daily prayer.

Both men said Litvinenko had converted to Islam on his deathbed, though some friends disputed the claim — saying that the ex-spy had merely expressed empathy with Chechen Muslims.

Vladimir Bukovsky, Litvinenko's friend and a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said the ex-spy had asked his body eventually be moved to Chechnya.

"On his deathbed he asked to be buried when the war is over in Chechen soil," Bukovsky said after the service. "He was a fierce defender of Chechnya and critic of the Kremlin."

The former agent's mother, Nina Belyavskaya, and his first wife, Natalia, were also among mourners in Highgate.

In Moscow, British police and Russian prosecutors wrangled for control in the international hunt for his killer.

The Russian Prosecutor General's office said Thursday it had opened a criminal case in the death of Litvinenko and another in the attempted murder of his associate, Kovtun, the Prosecutor General's office said.

A brief statement from the prosecutor general's office did not say when the criminal case was opened.

Interfax news agency reported that British and Russian investigators on Tuesday and Wednesday interrogated Kovtun.

Kovtun and an associate, Andrei Lugovoi, have told the Russian media they went to London as part of a group of Moscow soccer fans, and met briefly with their exiled countryman to discuss business matters. Later, they attended a soccer game between CSKA Moscow and Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium in north London.

"As a result of examinations it was established that Litvinenko died as a result of poisoning by a radioactive nuclide (substance) and that Kovtun, who met with Litvinenko in London in October 2006, developed an illness also connected with the radioactive nuclide (substance)," the statement said.

Kovtun had not previously been reported to have fallen ill. Lugovoi, also a former Russian security agent, is undergoing medical tests in a Moscow hospital, according to his lawyer.

Both men have told reporters in Moscow that someone is trying to frame them in Litvinenko's death.

The Russian prosecutor's move would allow suspects to be prosecuted in Russia. Officials previously have said that Russia would not extradite any suspects in the killing of Litvinenko, who died in London on Nov. 23.

British police on Wednesday upgraded their inquiry, saying they were treating the death of Litvinenko as a murder — rather than as a suspicious death.

Officers continued inquiries in Moscow, where they are seeking to question several men but are facing resistance from Russian authorities.

The investigators were expected to meet Thursday with Lugovoi, considered one of the key figures in the case, his lawyer Andrei Romashov told The Associated Press.

The Scotland Yard investigators are not directly interrogating witnesses; instead, Russian investigators are doing the questioning in the presence of the British agents.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday that
British agents' investigation into Litvinenko's death has not affected Russia's attitude toward relations with Britain, news agencies reported.

Wide speculation that Russian officials could have been behind the poisoning of Litvinenko, who fled Russia in 2000 and received British citizenship, has been seen as damaging Russian-British relations.

But Lavrov said "The investigation by Scotland Yard is not affecting our political relations," the Interfax news agency reported.

"Attempts to unfold a campaign to make a political sensation have already bogged down," he said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency. However, he added, "I cannot speak for the British side," ITAR-Tass said.

Lavrov said Russian officials "have expressed their readiness to help the investigation and up until this time are standing by that position."