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Doctors feared BBC broadcaster had been POISONED by Russian agents

They thought he'd fallen victim to a deadly pill

A veteran BBC broadcaster feared that he had been poisoned, after he fell ill.

Doctors thought that war reporter John Simpson had fallen foul of Polonium, at the hands of Russian agents.

The deadly poison is what had been used on ex-KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko.

John, 72, opened up about his fears that food poisoning had been something more sinister.

Speaking at the Cheltenham Literary Festival, John said he was so sick that he thought he might have fallen foul of Russian agents.

He said: “The doctors rather despaired of me and asked my wife as I was lying there unconscious ‘Has he upset somebody?

“‘Could I have upset Putin?

“Could somebody have come with a radioactive pill and dripped it in my tea?’”

John was referencing the furore that surrounded the death of Litvinenko.

The former spy had fled from Russia and a court prosecution, to gain political asylum in the UK.

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He was admitted to hospital in London after falling ill and it was later found that he had been given a lethal dose of polonium-210-induced acute radiation syndrome.

Litvinenko died three weeks later and there were allegations that Putin have been involved in ordering his assassination.

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Fortunately John, who had suffered shrapnel wounds and a damaged eardrum, managed to overcome his poisoning and he is probably pleased to know that he is still in Russia’s good books.


Nancy Brown
Associate Editor