Update: I agree with readers here that the German police were thorough and complete and were able to resolve Kovtun’s travels and the contamination trail much faster than their British counterparts – unless the media is being spun by UK authorities. The German authorities are being very pragmatic and they too note that Kovtun probably did not bring Polonium-210 with him from Russia, but probably handled it there.

The German inquiry focuses on whether he was in illegal contact with radioactive materials rather than the murder of Mr Litvinenko itself. At a press conference, a senior prosecutor said that one possible explanation was that while “packaging or transporting” the polonium before the meeting, Mr Kovtun had been “sloppy” and accidentally touched it.

However, the German authorities said the evidence did not necessarily mean that Mr Kovtun had carried a polonium source with him from Moscow to London via Hamburg in order to poison Mr Litvinenko. He may simply have been contaminated by the material and carried traces with him.

…

German state prosecutor Martin Köhnke said an investigation had been launched on the suspicion that Mr Kovtun had been in “illegal contact with radioactive substances”. But it was unclear whether he had swallowed the polonium or merely touched it.

“One possibility is that he came into contact with polonium while transporting or packaging it in Moscow. But we can’t say at this point whether he is a victim or a suspect.”

Since Lugovoi had departed London for Moscow around the time Kovtun was leaving it may be Lugovoi was the source of the contamination – or he brought the Polonium 210 from London to Moscow. It could be the contamination happened in Moscow or in London days before that. As I said in an earlier post, there is a possibility this material is flowing into Russia from London for Chechen use.

Major Update: More news out today regarding the first stop for Litvinenko that fateful day he went about his business, and it is – as I suspected – the Millenium Hotel.

A £1.50 BUS ticket proves that murdered Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned in a London hotel.

The ticket for a No 134 London bus was found in Litvinenko’s coat pocket after he was dosed with deadly polonium 210.

It was bought near his home in Muswell Hill, North London, from where he travelled to meetings in the West End on November 1.

Checks reveal that the bus he boarded has not been contaminated by radiation.

This, police say, almost certainly proves Litvinenko was poisoned at London’s Millennium Hotel where he drank tea that day with former colleagues Dmitry Kovtun and Andrei Lugovoi.

The hotel is the first place he is known to have visited after leaving the bus. Strong traces of polonium have been uncovered on a cup and saucer at the hotel.

The only question now is did he visit the hotel twice that day. If everyone recalls, Lugovoi and Kovtun said they had to go off to a meeting early in the day which is why the third Russian did not spend the day with those two. Also recall Litvinenko visited a security firm nearby as he and Lugovoi did everytime Lugovoi came into London and contamination traces were found in hotels. In fact, the last time the three men – Litvinenko, Lugovoi, Kovtun – were together was Oct 16th, at which time they went to Erinys, a security company in Grosvenor square. We have reporting that Erinys contacted authorities and notified them that Litvninko had visited that day, and the office was found to be contaminated. Scaramella also testified that Litvninenko had been at a meeting prior to their get together at the Sushi Bar.

It is not hard to believe Lugovoi and Kovtun would try and keep from authorities the earlier meeting with Litvinenko if it involved something illegal. So how do we know that Litvinenko did not go to the rooms of these men where the serious contamination occured, as they prepared to go to a meeting elsewhere. This makes sense because LItvinenkoi would then report back to Berezovsky at some point after he Scaramella meeting, before a final tag up at the Pine Bar. Now there are problems with this theory because the third Russian is now not sosure he ran into Litvinenko in the Pine Bar before the game. But Lugovoi’s son was supposed to have seen Litvinenko at this later, pre-game meeting. – end update

Just as the tea cup found in the Millenium Hotel is one critical clue which will shed light on whether the Litvinenko incident is an assassination attempt or a nuclear smuggling ring accident, the other contamination sites in the Hotel are just as important. And now we have another indication

Kovtun says he met Litvinenko only twice – on October 16 when Lugovoi introduced him to the political émigré and at the fatal meeting on November 1. Another man, Sokolenko, denies taking part in the November 1 meeting with Litvinenko, saying he flew to London to watch football. He admits, though, to greeting Litvinenko at the entrance of the Millennium Mayfair hotel.

This explains how traces of radiation have come to be found at the Emirates Stadium in London where the three Russians went to see football after meeting Litvinenko. Kovtun was there with polonium in his system. The poisoning of Kovtun makes the enigmatic case even more intricate. If he suffered too, Litvinenko was poisoned by someone else. However, one may surmise that Kovtun got poisoned by accident. British police says somebody dropped a capsule with polonium on the floor of the Mayfair hotel’s room which was presumably taken by one of Litvinenko’s FSB friends.

As with the tea cup, the indications are this was contact with a Polonium-210 metal or dust, not somthing with Polonium suspended or disolved into an acid-salt mixture. Again we see indications that something disasterous happened in a room (not the hotel bar). And there is no way to say for sure Litvinenko was not in this room earlier in the day. But it does fit a pattern of Lugovoi and associates coming to London, staying in hotels which later show PO-210 contamination in multiple rooms. In this case it seems one room showed a searing contamination level, like the tea cup. My guess is it would be consistent with an amount of PO-210 much higher than found in Litvinenko.