Tea with Strangers (Update)

New photos of KGB defector Alexander Litvinenko have been released, along with reports that his poisoners could have employed radioactive thallium, a unique form of the metal used to poison rats.

If true, this news would limit the circle of suspects to those with access to such an exotic variant of the poison. Certainly not SVR spokesman Sergei Ivanov, who dismissed Russia’s role as nonesence. "May God give him health," Ivanov said.

Russian security services have used radioactive thallium in the past. In fact, Soviet agents used radioactive thallium against former-KGB agent Nicolai Khokhlov in the 1950s. As in the Litvinenko case, Khokhlov was also a defector.

The subtlety of the message is not lost on Eternal Remont. Althought doubts over cause of the illness persist.