Meeting the Italian who lives as if he is in a Cold War spy novel
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.I learnt yesterday that I belong to a select club: those who have been close enough to Mario Scaramella, the Italian KGB expert, since his now notorious lunch with Alexander Litvinenko at the Itsu sushi bar in London on 1 November, to require testing for radioactivity.
Because yesterday, in the latest twist in the poisoning saga, the world learnt the Italian is contaminated with polonium-210.
When I met him in the lobby of Rome's Termini station on 20 November, it was the first interview he had given to the Western press since being implicated in the Litvinenko case. He was clutching a large envelope with the name of a hospital in Rome printed on it. He had just returned, he said, from being tested for contamination by radioactive thallium. They had given him a clean bill of health.
Did he even then have reason to believe that he was contaminated? If so, he wasn't letting on - and even yesterday, as news of his positive test became known, he said reassuringly from London that he was in the clear.
He agreed to see me because I was the only British journalist who knew him personally. He was behind a story last year claiming the Soviets had laid 20 nuclear torpedoes on the seabed in the Bay of Naples. To follow the story up, I had lunch with him near the Pantheon in Rome.
Meeting Scaramella is like walking into the pages of a Cold War thriller. This time, post Itsu, he showed me e-mails from an ex-KGB agent called Limarev warning that he and Litvinenko were in danger. This, he said, was the reason for meeting Litvinenko - only Limarev has denied sending them. Yesterday, in London, Scaramella said he was unable to return to Italy yet as there was "a problem". He may be away some time.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments