Siloviki in Power: Litvinenko's been dead for a year

Link: BBC NEWS | UK | Litvinenko a year on: Our stories.

(((While it should no longer be amazing news that Russian spies sling poison, you have to empathize with the collaterally damaged, like this guy pounding a piano next to the polonium cup.)))

"I was the pianist in the Pine Bar at the Millennium hotel. That was where Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned. He was given the polonium in a cup of tea.

"About an hour after he left, I sat at the same table, and drank coffee out of the same cup. They later found that although the cup had been through the dishwasher, it hadn't been cleaned properly.

"A couple of days later they closed the bar - but no-one told me why.

"It was only when I watched the news three weeks later that I learned about the poisoned Russian, and that I should contact the Health Protection Agency.
(...)

"A week later I was called back to the hotel, and shown into a room where there were two doctors. The doctor said: "We have some bad news for you, the results are a little high."

I later learned that I had suffered the 3rd highest contamination of all the people affected.

"I was really worried at first - I thought I might get cancer. But I've just had my last test and they have found that most of the stuff is out of my body.

"As time has gone on I've decided that I will use the experience to make the most of my life.

"I wrote a song - "A sad and lonely man" - based on my experience. It came second in the jazz and blues section of the UK Songwriting Contest...."