Transcripts for MSNBC Dateline 20191117 10:50:15 archive.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from archive.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
but who could get hold of such an expensive and exotic weapon? and just how did they deliver the fatal dose? when detectives went step by step with litvinenko through the day he was poisoned, he named three potential suspects the two russians and the italian. the first one we found was the italian. the first one we met was the italian. so now in rome, we re on our way to see mario scaramella, who hopefully can shed some more light on who killed alexander litvinenko and why. scaramella has been a hard man to pin down. first, he wanted to meet us in naples, then new york, then london. he finally agreed on rome, and we re about to find out why he s been so skittish. [ speaking italian ] how to describe scaramella? he s a lawyer, an academic, a security analyst, and also someone litvinenko never completely trusted. scaramella, you ll remember, is the contact litvinenko met at the sushi bar on the day he was poisoned. litvinenko thought you poisoned him? yes. you didn t poison him
this wasn t just symbolism. in march 2006, eight months before litvinenko s murder, the russian parliament passed a law authorizing the liquidation of enemies of the state anywhere in the world. you don t pass that just for the sake of passing it. you have to have somebody in mind. reporter: seven months after the law was passed, someone was liquidated. a prominent russian journalist, shot in the head outside her moscow apartment. she was a friend of litvinenko. three weeks later, litvinenko himself was poisoned with polonium 210. duma leader zhirinovsky certainly didn t shed any tears when that happened but laughs off the notion that the russian state was connected in any way. for one simple reason. he thinks russian agents would have done a better job. translator: i m surprised that the uk special services and the uk court accuses russia and lugovoi that with a bag of polonium they came to london and were just throwing it around. reporter: it just doesn t make sense to a lot
people were unwittingly exposed. do we know, ultimately, what the final cost of this use of polonium is? someone who was washing dishes in the pine bar or in a hotel, cleaning crew, do we know, ultimately? reporter: five months after litvinenko s death, scotland yard issued an arrest warrant for lugovoi. kovtun s would come later. the two responded with a press conference in moscow stating their innocence. [ speaking russian ] reporter: russia refused to extradite them, so we traveled to moscow to find the men who are wanted in connection with litvinenko s murder. coming up the stakes get even higher as we confront a top russian official.
i don t think there s any doubt. people say oh, that s in russia, not over here. but it can happen here too. i know that it can because it happened to my husband. and she admits at fist she was angry when he agreed to be interview interested this program. i said what are you thinking? why do you want to bring notice once again? but then when the man in russia was shot, i had a kind of an epiphany. wait a minute someone needs to talk about this. someone needs say this is not right. can i ask an obvious question. why are you talking to me now against against the advice of counsel and my family? well, it may be foolish but i think it s the right thing to do.