III 
110TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 154 
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
APRIL 2, 2008 
Received and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 
Expressing the sense of Congress that the fatal radiation 
poisoning of Russian dissident and writer Alexander 
Litvinenko raises significant concerns about the potential 
involvement of elements of the Russian Government in 
Mr. Litvinenko’s death and about the security and pro-
liferation of radioactive materials. 
Whereas Russian dissident and writer Alexander Litvinenko, 
a citizen and resident of Great Britain, suddenly fell ill 
on November 1, 2006, and died three weeks later in a 
London hospital; 
Whereas British health officials concluded, following an au-
topsy, that Mr. Litvinenko died of radiation poisoning 
caused 
by 
ingestion 
of 
the 
radioactive 
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HCON 154 RFS 
element polonium-210, and British law enforcement offi-
cials have announced that they are treating Mr. 
Litvinenko’s death as a murder; 
Whereas polonium-210, according to the Health Physics Soci-
ety, radiates alpha particles that cannot penetrate paper 
or human skin but, if ingested through eating, drinking, 
or breathing, are extremely toxic, with the ability to de-
stroy cells, damage vital organs such as the liver, kid-
neys, and bone marrow, cause cancer, and result in 
human death; 
Whereas according to the Health Physics Society, just one 
millionth of a gram of polonium-210 can be fatal, an 
amount invisible to the naked eye; 
Whereas 97 percent of the world’s legal production of polo-
nium-210 occurs at the Avangard nuclear facility in Rus-
sia, and Russia is the world’s leading exporter of polo-
nium-210 for commercial purposes; 
Whereas polonium-210 is presently neither produced in nor 
commercially exported to Great Britain; 
Whereas polonium-210, being especially dangerous to public 
health and safety if improperly handled, may attract the 
attention of terrorists because it can be easily and safely 
concealed and transported and is not usually detectable 
by radiation detectors; 
Whereas this instance of poisoning by use of polonium-210 
could serve as a model for future use of the radioactive 
element to assassinate individuals, poison and kill large 
numbers of people, or spread general panic and hysteria 
amongst the public; 
Whereas Mr. Litvinenko was a former agent and official in 
the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation 
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during the period when present Russian President Vladi-
mir Putin ran that agency; 
Whereas in 1998 Mr. Litvinenko was fired from the Federal 
Security Service and subsequently arrested and briefly in-
carcerated without conviction for a criminal act after 
publicly accusing high-level officials of the Federal Secu-
rity Service of crimes that included plotting assassination 
attempts; 
Whereas Mr. Litvinenko fled Russia and successfully sought 
asylum in Great Britain, becoming a naturalized British 
citizen in October 2006; 
Whereas Mr. Litvinenko, after arriving in Britain, repeatedly 
accused the Federal Security Service and many of its of-
ficers, including now-President Putin, of involvement in 
organized crime, assassinations, and other illegal activity; 
Whereas on November 1, 2006, before falling ill, Mr. 
Litvinenko reportedly met with three citizens of Russia, 
including former Federal Security Service agent Andrei 
Lugovoi; 
Whereas the manner in which the polonium-210 was ob-
tained, transported, and used must be fully investigated 
and revealed in order to reveal any defects or inadequa-
cies in the present safeguard regime for that substance 
administered by the Russian Government and in order to 
prevent the unlawful, criminal, or terrorist acquisition or 
use of polonium-210 in the future; 
Whereas the danger posed by polonium-210, as displayed by 
the discovery, subsequent to Mr. Litvinenko’s death, of 
numerous cases of its exposure to objects and persons 
who had contact with Mr. Litvinenko and his meal com-
panions, demonstrates the threat that the proliferation 
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and use of polonium-210 poses to the lives of innocents 
worldwide, as well as to international security; 
Whereas on July 15, 2006, the United States and Russia 
jointly announced the Global Initiative to Combat Nu-
clear Terrorism, which ‘‘will enhance cooperation . . . to 
combat the global threat of nuclear terrorism . . . [includ-
ing] determined and systematic efforts to improve ac-
counting, control, and physical protection of nuclear ma-
terial and radioactive substances, as well as security of 
nuclear facilities; [and] detect and suppress illicit traf-
ficking or other illicit activities involving such materials, 
especially measures to prevent their acquisition and use 
by terrorists’’; 
Whereas Mr. Lugovoi has won immunity from prosecution as 
a member of the Russian Duma in December 2007 elec-
tions allegedly influenced by government electoral manip-
ulation, which provides credence to claims that he has en-
joyed official support in obtaining that office and its as-
sociated immunity; and 
Whereas the British investigation into Mr. Litvinenko’s mur-
der continues in an atmosphere of deteriorating relations 
between the United Kingdom and the Russian Federation 
due, in part, to a lack of agreement on the further pur-
suit of that investigation: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that— 
(1) the fatal radiation poisoning of Alexander 
Litvinenko raises significant concerns about the po-
tential involvement of elements of the Russian Gov-
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ernment in Mr. Litvinenko’s death, and about the 
security and proliferation of radioactive materials; 
(2) the use of such radioactive materials in 
such cases demonstrates a threat to the safety and 
security of the people of the Russian Federation, the 
United Kingdom, the United States, and other coun-
tries; and 
(3) the President of the United States and the 
Secretary of State should urge Russian President 
Vladimir Putin and other officials of the Russian 
Government to cooperate fully with the British Gov-
ernment in its investigation into Mr. Litvinenko’s 
death and to ensure the security of the production, 
storage, distribution, and export of polonium-210 as 
a material that may become dangerous to large 
numbers of people if utilized by terrorists. 
Passed the House of Representatives April 1, 2008. 
Attest: 
LORRAINE C. MILLER, 
Clerk. 
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