…but the men were Sergei Lugovoy, a former KGB bodyguard (was a body guard to Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar who recently was vomiting blood in Dublin) and businessman who runs a security company in Moscow, Dmitry Kovtun and Vyacheslav Sokolenko.

Dmitry Kovtun one of the three men that met Mr Litvinenko at the Pine Bar in London’s Millennium Hotel on 1 November has fallen into a coma in Moscow (Russian Interfax News agency and BBC newsflash 6 December).

Another Russian who was at the same meeting, ex-spy Andrei Lugovoy, is also in hospital.

These men came to London allegedly to see the Arsenal-CSKA Moscow Champions League match in the Gunners Emirates stadium on 1 November. Trace of Polonium-210 have been found in Arsenal’s Emirates stadium as well as on the British Airways Boeing 767 flight from Moscow that brought the men to London.

Russian prosecutors are currently investigating what they are treating as the murder of Mr Litvinenko and the attempted murder of Mr Kovtun.

A statement from the Russian prosecutor’s office said checks had established Mr Litvinenko died as a result of poisoning

Earlier today, seven workers at the Millennium Hotel’s Pine bar tested positive for low levels of polonium-210, the radioactive substance blamed for Litvinenko’s death, according to the UK’s Health Protection Agency