A FORMER bodyguard to President Vladimir Putin was murdered with a poison that produced symptoms remarkably similar to those of Alexander Litvinenko it emerged yesterday, writes Jonathan Calvert.

Roman Tsepov died aged 42 in 2004 after suffering severe radiation sickness brought on by a mystery substance he had ingested with food or drink.

The case suggests that use of radioactive poisons — similar to the polonium-210 that killed Litvinenko — may be more widespread than previously thought.

The nature of the poison is still a subject of speculation. Some reports in Russia say he was given a huge dose of a drug normally used to combat leukaemia and other cancers.

Other publications have suggest he was intoxicated by an experimental poison containing huge quantities of heavy metals, which came from a secret Russian chemical weapons facility.

Tsepov, nicknamed King of the Shadows, is said to have had a number of powerful enemies but the identity of his killer has never come to light.

He was a graduate of the supreme military commander school of the Russian Interior Ministry and served with the interior troops. In the early 1990s he set up Baltic-Escort, a security business, that provided bodyguard services to Anatoly Sobchak, the then mayor of St Petersburg, and his deputy, Putin.

He survived three murder attempts in the 1990s. His friends believe his ties to lucrative businesses in Russia could have made him a target but claim he was not linked to a mafia gang.

In September 2004 he was admitted to Sverdlov hospital in St Petersburg with severe food poisoning. As in the case of Litvinenko, doctors were baffled as his condition grew worse over the first two weeks.

He began to show classic symptoms of radiation sickness: he grew pale, his hair fell out and his white blood cell count fell. He died before he could be taken to a specialist hospital in Germany.

The investigation into the case is still continuing. There are reports that Tsepov could have ingested the poison in a powder or liquid form while eating a meal. The city prosecutor’s office in St Petersburg has described the case as a “premeditated murder”.

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