i just wanted to go out there to compete, and playing with well when you have fun, and this is the biggest thing. >> the 49ers escape with a much needed win, but is the man who led them going to be the starter next week? his coach's answer along with the highlights are ahead. . the raiders and the steelers found themselves in a old-fashioned shootout, and unfortunately for the raiders, the steelers had the ball last. this is xfinity sports sunday. hi, everybody. welcome to "xfinity sports sunday" and thank you for staying up. my back field is set here, and we have a combined nine pro bowls between us. and now, before we get to the

highlights, whoo is thwhat is t you are wearing? >> velvet. >> all right, ricky waters. let's go to the levy stadium with kaepernick on the sideline as a backup to gabbert. blaine gabbert hits quentin patten for a long pickup. and everybody wants to go for it on fourth down, and the drive stays alive. three plays later, gabbert find s garrett celek, and they keep him involved and there is gabbert finding the end zone. >> very good. >> and now, ripping off a big gain of 30 yards and first down.

>> there it is, do your thing young man. >> and now, gabbert finds celek again. 17-6, 49ers and you have to wonder what kap is thinking about this. this is a good combination, gabbert to sell eck. >> he was selling it, and the skinny, and he threw igt right in there and good job by gabbert. >> and the fourth quarter, and still up by four, blaine gabbert going to be lit up as he is throwing this football. >> ooh. >> gabbert is pulled off of the field, because, bam! right in the wheelhouse, and check ed f checked for the concussion, but he would return. they asked him what day was it? and they said, all right. >> i know i play football on sunday, he said. >> and now, picked by beasley, and now, atlanta takes over down by four. and now, the ensuing drive, and matt ryan hitting justin hardy short of the goal line, and the

falcons decide to kick the field goal and go within one. and now, gabbert takes it and runs around the right side, and he was 185 yards, and two touchdown, and no ints and zero sacks, and the fans love it. they held on the end a ten-game drought. that the red zone report is brought to you by your toyota dealer. 49ers leading freshman davante freeman is held to just 29 yards. in 28 career starts, it is the fifth time that gabbert threw two touchdowns in a game, and he has never thrown three. ricky dennis and i caught up with gabbert on "postgame live" after the game, and this what the qb said. >> yeah, i wanted to come out there to have fun playing ball.

i went out there to lead the line, and the entire line, the backs and the receivers making plays all day long. i almost gave them one there in the end, but the defense played tough on the third and goal on the 4 and got it stopped. >> coach, just to clarify, fwoigs is the starter for this next game. >> gabbert is the starter today, and i don't have a comment past that. we have a win today. >> and ricky, in light of what happened, any way possible that gabbert does not start when they play seattle at seattle after the bye? >> i would totally be like, huh, if he is not. i mean, he did a great job today. and he led the team, and managed the ball game, and did what they wanted him the to do, and he came in, and he did a great job and ran when he had to, and made some great plays when he needed to, and he inspired the whole team. >> and lo, a theory that kap could come back? >> yes, gabbert played well, and they only scored 17 point, and

not like they the lit up the scoreboard. and they played atlanta falcons with the least amount of sacks, and the secondary is horrible, and great spot to put him in, and now go back to kaepernick for an opportunity of a couple of games and then right back to him. >> not back to him even though he won? >> well, the ownership wanted to build his confidence and clear his head. he got to do that and against who? seattle, and there you go, you have the clearest head and now when you two to gabbert, it is good. >> and what is your favorite movie? "jfk with the conspiracy theory" or what? why wouldn't you go with the hot hand? >> and the coaches said that we have not lost confidence in kaepernick, but he has lost confidence in himself. and they wanted to clear his head and get him back starting, and now a opportunity for

seattle for ckaepernick to go o and if he does not do well, then they can move on, but that is my theory. >> and now inside of the numbers broug brought to you by nissan. gabbert getting the first win in the last 11 starts. remember, he was 5-22 as the starter in jacksonville. looked pretty comfortable in the pocket, too. i thought. >> yes, he is #-0 now for the the 49ers, and look at how se running with the ball, and making plays. a great play by him, and move manage the pocket, and making people miss. >> probably faster, ricky, than some people thought. >> yes, i didn't know that he had wheels like that. >> and he showed me toughness when he stood in the pocket, and took the former niner, the 511 linebacker willard came in there to kiss him, and he got the ball out, and threw it well. that is what you want to see, standing in the pocket to take the big hit, but deliver the

ball. >> and here is another thing, if he had not had the drops that people had on him, he would have had a better day. >> yes, and an awkward situation, especially when he came out for two i plas, and kap went n and they booed kap, it was weird, lo. all right. we will take a break and much more here on "xfinity sunday." we will break down the explosion in the steel city and how the silver and black got the best of the steelers.

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welcome back in, and raiders and steelers, and lo, you got to see this one, and i want to get your analysis in a second, but i want to show you the highlights. the silver and black trying to stay above .500, and the raiders

down four, and derek carr looking for and finding a amare cooper in the end zone, and wide open, he is saying, lo, throw me the ball! >> yes, and carr exploited it. >> and now, he finds him in the end zone. and third quarter, steelers find clyde wallford for the touchdown and a great play by the rookie. gr yes, great patience by carr. >> and now, third quarter, and toss sweep to the latavius murry, and lo, he hit him right on the helmet, and murry left to be evaluated with a concussion. >> well with, murry has to learn to run with the pass over him, and if not, he is going to continue to sufficient the concussions. >> and now, this one, he shakes free for the 14-yard score, and great running. >> well, shaking and baking, and

this a great run called yac, and yards after catch, and he did a great job the make guys miss. >> and now, big ben throwing again to find james in the end zone for the score. and on the ensuing drive, you can see this scamper there to cut the lead to seven. are. >> and be one cut and miss and great job to get into the end zone. >> and now, on the third down, roethlisberger drops back and sacked by walden smith. payne landing on ben roethlisberger, and he left on a cart with the ankle. >> and now, looking deep for michael crabtree alive and well and living in the east bay. lo, crabtree with a lot left in the tang. >> no, question, but a great job of carr and crabtree being on

the same page. crabtree one-on-one with the linebacker, but it is too late. >> and then send in backup landry jones for big ben, an antonio jones with 17 receptions, and 284 yards receiving, and both of them steelers' records. set up the short field goal, and boswell -- no. no shanking it is good. the raiders drop to 4-4. carr threw for over 200, and 150er zero interceptions, and murry has to go through the concussion protocol before he is able to practice or play. and amare koi cooper set a frane record for receptions by a rookie receiver previously set by tim brown in 1980. now, that brings us to the jeep renegade player of the day, and brought to you by jeep renegade. antonio brown, with the two catches, and the 284 yards, and

both career highs, and what happened on the 57-yard sprint on the final play, and great brown or bad raider "d"? >> bad raider "d." davis jumped in the to try to pick the play, and when the receivers are running the pick plays, the dbs are taught to go underneath or on top, and he decided underneath, and when he did it, it is a pick play, and antonio brown is too explosive and you can't take bad angles. all he had to do do there was to go over the top. if he does, he is tackle right there and a first and ten from the 35, but instead, it is a big play. >> and i said antonio brown, and misspoke. peyton manning wishes he had him. this guy with the steelers, and he is as good as anybody else still. >> yes, no doubt. this guy was amazing. and if you saw this guy with 17 catches for 280 yards, and 284, and sorry and the four, and let me add that in there, but he had

180 yards in the first half. the raiders were beat by one man, brown single-handedly beat the raiders, and this guy tried the bracket coverage and trying the double him at time, and he was too explosive and good for the raider, and the raiders this year, they are doing to go as far as the secondary takes them. >> we have peyton manning, and the denver on the brain, because it was peyton manning against mr. luck. and brown will stay there, and payton with a record right in his grasp. could he get it? two great quarterbacks going after each other.

xfinity sports sunday wants to remind you that the golden stateer warriors are back in action and csn bay area is the best place to catch them.

we have a a pregame special before the pistons and the warriors take it to the court. and peyton manning returning to indy. andrew luck pass iing to ahmad bradshaw who is going to leap into the end zone, and the colts up seven. and next possession, manning to owen daniel, and ties it. after a colts' field goal, luck -- manning is picked off, and they will not catch the colts. and just two shi shy of betteri brett favre, and so he will, but it is when. and everybody said down a year that payton is having, but only one loss, and age has caught up with him, and is this it for

him, lo, the final swan song? >> yes, last year they had to force him to come back, and you have seen him evaluating himself after the season. and it is tough when you know that it is the end of the road and your body is shutting down on you and this is tough. this is definitely the last year. >> and people were asking how vernon davis would do back, and vernon said it is all a 49er problem, and he was targeted once and zero catches for zero yards, and his other guy, the counter part se counter part c elek had a good day. >> and vernon did not, but it is going to be taking some time for him to be acclimated into the system. and manning to me, i think that it has to do with whether they win or not. if they win -- well sh, it is h for him to want to go out on top, and that is a good look for

him. >> but looking at the ball, and all of the interceptions, and you have to look and evaluate and he is the tough eest criticn himself, but the end is very soon. >> and ricky, real quickly, the 49ers with a bye week and back to the top story, blaine gabbert is leading them to the win today, and when they come back from the bye, does he start? >> yes, and he seemed to make them play as a team, and they rallied around him, and like i said, if they had caught some of the catches for him, they would have done better. >> lo? lo, who the starter? >> it is colin kaepernick, and you know how many points they scored in the second half? zero. >> and you know how many in the first half? 17. that is more than the first six game games. >> and if i bet you my velvet jack jacket. >> no, i don't want any part of that jacket.

alexander litvinenko, the former russian agent, the man friends called sasha, died without knowing what killed him. the results from a battery of tests came in too late. but they did come in. it turned out he was killed by something far more lethal than common rat poison. >> it's polonium. >> reporter: polonium 210 to be exact, a rare and deadly radioactive isotope. the news shocked the world, even though most people weren't exactly sure what polonium was. but paul joyal knew what it was and what it could do. that his friend effectively burned to death from radioactivity. >> it's a horrible death. it's a gruesome death. he lived longer than he -- than any man normally would under those circumstances. and he lived just long enough,

within 12 hours long enough, for them to finally determine that it was polonium versus something else. >> reporter: why, if he had died 12 hours earlier, would it have made any difference? >> because they wouldn't have found out. they would have marked the death certificate as death unknown. he would have been put in the ground, and it would have been just a mystery. unknown -- unknown assailants. turn the page, move on. >> it's the key of this murder. polonium 210 was discovered and now we know exactly sasha was killed by polonium 210. >> reporter: it's an almost perfect murder weapon. polonium has no smell, little taste, and without specialized equipment, it's undetectable. >> if you not looking particularly for polonium, you not able to discover it. do you know, it will be everywhere, but you don't know this. >> reporter: the amount that killed litvinenko, slipped into something he ate or drank, was

no larger than a grain of salt. but that's still a thousand times the lethal dose. and that tiny bit of polonium would have been enormously expensive. >> $8 million to $12 million to be able to get the portion that went into him. >> reporter: but who could get hold of such an expensive and exotic weapon? and just how did they deliver the fatal dose? when detectives went step by step with litvinenko through the day he was poisoned, he named three potential suspects -- the two russians and the italian. the first one we found was the italian. so now in rome, we're on our way to see mario scaramella, who hopefully can shed some more light on who killed alexander litvinenko and why. scaramella has been a hard man to pin down. first, he wanted to meet us in naples, then new york, then london. he finally agreed on rome, and we're about to find out why he's been so skittish.

[ speaking italian ] >> reporter: how to describe scaramella? he's a lawyer, an academic, a security analyst and also someone litvinenko never completely trusted. scaramella, you'll remember, is the contact litvinenko met at the sushi bar on the day he was poisoned. litvinenko thought you poisoned him? >> yes. >> reporter: you didn't poison him? >> absolutely not. >> reporter: from his perspective, it does make sense. >> uh-huh. no, sure, everything is very strange. >> reporter: scaramella had been working for the italian government and sometimes used litvinenko as a source for investigations into the russian mob and spy rings. so he was giving you names of russian mafia members. >> yes, names, dates. >> reporter: who were connected to the intelligence service? >> exactly. >> reporter: something that was sure to upset both the mobsters and the fsb. scaramella told us that in october 2006, the month before litvinenko was poisoned, he

began receiving frightening e-mails. the final message arrived on the very day of his last meeting with litvinenko. and what did that message say? >> look, there are people ready to kill you. >> reporter: the e-mails amounted to a hit list. the next name up -- >> alexander. >> reporter: alexander, as in litvinenko. scaramella says that's why he met with litvinenko in london, to tell him about the hit list, to warn him. but, he says, litvinenko didn't buy it. >> he said, mario, don't care about that. >> reporter: he says it's bs. >> i think it's just a provocation, but please check what's happening. >> reporter: but after what happened to litvinenko, scaramella says he takes the hit list seriously. are you frightened for your life? >> well -- do you have another question? >> reporter: scotland yard questioned scaramella and eventually cleared him. why?

because if you're looking for it, polonium is traceable. using specialized equipment, investigators were able to track it in people and in places. >> once polonium 210 had been identified, then across europe, like the slime from a slug all the way across, polonium was popping up everywhere. >> reporter: but not in scaramella. no polonium in his body or anywhere he'd been. so scotland yard took a hard look at the two russians, lugovoi and kovtun. when detectives retraced their steps, they found polonium contamination everywhere. >> we see the same fingerprints of the polonium in multiple places where they were. >> reporter: business offices, hotels, a hookah bar, a strip club, a soccer stadium. and the millennium hotel's pine bar where they last met litvinenko? that's were investigators hit

the jackpot. these 3-d graphics put together by scotland yard, show the entire pine bar was contaminated with polonium with extreme hot spots on a table and chair. and the levels found inside this teapot? off the charts. paul joyal wonders how many people were unwittingly exposed. >> do we know, ultimately, what the final cost of this use of polonium is? someone who was washing dishes in the pine bar or in a hotel, cleaning crew, do we know, ultimately? >> reporter: five months after litvinenko's death, scotland yard issued an arrest warrant for lugovoi. kovtun's would come later. the two responded with a press conference in moscow stating their innocence. [ speaking russian ] >> reporter: russia refused to extradite them, so we traveled to moscow to find the men who

are wanted in connection with litvinenko's murder. coming up -- the stakes get even higher as we confront a top russian official. he had been speaking out aggressively against russian officials for years. how is it that all of this evidence doesn't point to russia?

in the dead of winter 2015, we arrived in moscow in an effort to find out not only who killed former russian agent alexander litvinenko but why. this is home to andrei lugovoi and dmitri kovtun, hunted by both scotland yard and interpol, suspected of killing litvinenko. around the world they were villains in a tale of international intrigue and murder, yet here in russia we found plenty of people who thought if the two did kill litvinenko he probably had it coming. thank you very much for talking to us. in the duma, russia's parliament, the pugnacious leader of the ultra-nationalist party has nothing but disdain for litvinenko. >> translator: who needs this little petty person? he was just a piece of rubbish.

>> reporter: vladimir zhirinovsky told us that here in russia litvinenko made plenty of enemies going back years. back in the 1990s, russia was in chaos after the collapse of the soviet union. it was a time when enormous fortunes were created and outrageous crimes committed, sometimes by the very people sent to investigate them. back then, alexander litvinenko was a young fsb agent who claimed to be disturbed by what he saw. litvinenko specialized in organized crime investigations but became obsessed with what he believed to be corruption within the fsb. crimes committed by the cops. he compiled a dossier, complete with flow charts detailing his allegations and presented it personally to the head of the agency. and the result was? >> opposite. >> reporter: surveillance on your family? >> exactly. >> reporter: an outraged litvinenko now did the

unthinkable. he led a nationally televised press conference. a group of agents, several of them in disguise, claiming the fsb had become corrupted by russian mafia money. >> not only was it absolutely extraordinary, but as you see from the picture of that news conference, he did not have a mask. >> reporter: litvinenko even claimed he'd been ordered to assassinate a prominent billionaire, boris berezovsky, but instead warned him that his life was in danger. >> the essential motivation of this very simple man was his feeling that his country was being betrayed by the leadership. >> he believed he didn't do anything wrong. he was a good officer. >> reporter: and he didn't think it would get him in trouble? >> he said they will kill me or they will arrest me. >> reporter: he was jailed for nine months. but that billionaire he'd warned, berezovsky, bailed him out and helped litvinenko and

his family flee to london. there litvinenko kept up the drumbeat of criticism against the russian government. he even wrote a book accusing the fsb of starting a war in chechnya for political reasons. in response, russia branded litvinenko a traitor. his image used for target practice by russian special forces. this wasn't just symbolism. in march 2006, eight months before litvinenko's murder, the russian parliament passed a law authorizing the liquidation of enemies of the state anywhere in the world. >> you don't pass that just for the sake of passing it. you have to have somebody in mind. >> reporter: seven months after the law was passed, someone was liquidated. a prominent russian journalist, shot in the head outside her moscow apartment. she was a friend of litvinenko.

three weeks later, litvinenko himself was poisoned with polonium 210. duma leader zhirinovsky certainly didn't shed any tears when that happened but laughs off the notion that the russian state was connected in any way. for one simple reason. he thinks russian agents would have done a better job. >> translator: i'm surprised that the uk special services and the uk court accuses russia and lugovoi that with a bag of polonium they came to london and were just throwing it around. >> reporter: it just doesn't make sense to a lot of people that russia didn't kill him. >> translator: for a hundred years, the russian special services have been using the kind of substances for killing people that you never will be able to recognize. why do we have to go into some kind of a bar and put it in someone's tea cup and everyone's laughing at it? i mean, the state cannot be involved in that. >> reporter: litvinenko's friend paul joyal, who believes he was the target of a botched assassination, agrees that in

some ways litvinenko's killers were indeed clumsy and careless. but he says that's because they were probably just pawns in a much bigger game. do you think that any of them knew what that substance was? do you think that they knew they were handling polonium? >> reporter: why wouldn't they have known what they were handling? >> because you don't want them to know. >> reporter: but they could have done a better job not spreading it all over the place if they knew. >> they also might say no, there's no way i'm going to do that. >> reporter: i don't want to handle that radioactive material? >> i am not going to kill myself in the process. >> reporter: to get closer to the truth about who killed litvinenko, we had to talk to the suspects themselves, andrei lugovoi and dmitri kovtun. in kovtun's case, it wasn't easy. a few weeks after litvinenko died of polonium poisoning, kovtun was hospitalized and lost all his hair. he hasn't been seen publicly in since 2012. that left lugovoi.

when we got here, he didn't want to speak with us. but on the second day of our trip he called and said he was ready to talk. coming up -- at last we lay eyes on one of the men believed to have killed litvinenko. now we ask the question the world wants answered -- did you put polonium in the tea?

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meet andrei lugovoi. handsome, dapper, urbane. and one of the men scotland yard believes conspired to poison former russian agent alexander litvinenko. we'd been negotiating an interview for weeks. he agreed, then backed out, then finally sat down with us. what did you think of litvinenko? were you friendly? would you consider yourselves friends? >> translator: i have always said that we have never been friends. he was a very complicated person, slightly crazy i would say. he was given to conspiracy theories, to blowing things up out of all proportion. >> reporter: he and litvinenko both used to work for the fsb. both had served time in jail. it was a bond between them. lugovoi had done very well in

business after that and opened a security consulting firm. he says he and litvinenko met several times in london to discuss doing business there together including that now infamous meeting in the pine bar where scotland yard says litvinenko was poisoned. lugovoi says the meeting was no big deal. so what do you remember about sitting there at the table? >> translator: i remember that we talked with litvinenko about nothing in particular. and now for eight years, i am under suspicion. >> reporter: you're under suspicion because the investigation says there was polonium in that teapot. did you put any polonium in the tea? >> translator: of course not. i was tested for polonium, and i tested positive. did i put polonium into myself? am i an idiot? am i crazy? >> reporter: but scotland yard detectives don't believe lugovoi's denials.

in fact, they think he tried to kill litvinenko more than once. that's because they found polonium on the table in a conference room where he and litvinenko had met two weeks before the pine bar encounter. was anything spilled on the table? >> translator: richard, you are asking questions. i remember some things. i don't remember other things. i cannot answer these questions because these can be used against me in the court, which is done frequently. >> reporter: as for his last meeting with litvinenko at the pine bar, lugovoi says there's no way he brought polonium on that trip because his wife and children were with him. >> translator: a person's weakest spot is his family. and i'm a rational man. even if i had taken part in an operation, even if i had known what was in the container, would i take my family along? i'm a rational man. i couldn't do it. >> reporter: not only did he continue to maintain his innocence, he offered his own theory about who poisoned the

tea. could someone had put something in there without you noticing? >> translator: no. why don't you think the polonium may have been put there into the cup after our meeting the next day or by a guy from mi-6? he brings the polonium and pours it into the cup. that's agatha christie stuff. >> reporter: mi-6 is british intelligence. lugovoi says perhaps the brits killed litvinenko to embarrass russia. retired mi-6 analyst glenmore trenear-harvey says that's nonsense if for no other reason because mi-6 would never use such an expensive weapon to kill anyone. >> if the british wanted to kill him, then he would have fallen out of a hotel window. he would have been placed in front of a car. we'd have spent $12 million in a slightly more cost-effective fashion. >> reporter: you would have made it look like an accident? >> indeed. things are done less expensively, more cost effectively.

old-fashioned bullets in bodies work rather effectively and quite cheaply. >> reporter: why not just shoot him? >> i didn't say they would have done. they could possibly. we -- >> could possibly have done -- >> w-- we don't do that sort of thing. >> reporter: also remember, litvinenko was working for mi-6 and it was lugovoi and his partner dmitri kovtun who left a radioactive trail all over london especially at the pine bar. lugovoi is hardly hiding here in russia. he did our interview in one of the restaurants that he owns. he's a member of parliament. and he's even become something of a pop culture icon hosting his own tv show. the program, appropriately enough, is called "traitors." it names and shames individuals who are supposedly enemies of the russian state. lugovoi's high profile here is just one reason that many people who suspect him of murder don't think he acted on his own. another reason? all of the polonium 210 in

russia is under the control of the state. >> it's impossible to use a state-controlled substance like this without the knowledge of the very top of the country. >> reporter: because you're unleashing a radioactive substance? it's almost -- it's a tiny, little dirty bomb. >> it's nuclear terrorism. coming up -- where does this trail really lead? of all his enemies, litvinenko may have infuriated one more than any other. >> i said this is a very dangerous thing to do because you're personalizing this.

>> reporter: while in london we had a hastily arranged meeting with another man who's convinced his life is in danger. akhmed zakayev is a wanted man in russia, a rebel leader from the breakaway chechen republic,

and a close friend of the former kgb agent alexander litvinenko, who he says gave him an important piece of advice -- never trust old friends. >> he said, someone will come from your past. but you shouldn't trust him because he will be your killer. >> reporter: sasha told you that? >> sasha told me. >> reporter: beware of someone coming from your past. >> beware of someone from your past. >> reporter: which may be what happened to litvinenko, after all andrei lugovoi was a person from his past. but as we've seen, there were a number of people in litvinenko's past who may have wanted him dead. the fsb colleagues he denounced. the russian mobsters he was investigating. perhaps someone who thought he was a traitor for working with british intelligence. since november 2006 litvinenko's widow marina has been asking how big was the conspiracy? who was behind it? how high did it go? dangerous questions, as she knows better than anyone.

>> you think you play chess, but they play russian roulette. >> reporter: those who were closest to litvinenko believe the kill order may have come from the very top because litvinenko picked a fight with the wrong person from his past. none other than russian president vladimir putin. >> sasha was on a mission. he was trying to prove that putin is as corrupt as anybody in post-communist russia. >> reporter: the mission may have started years before when litvinenko made that flow chart of corruption in the fsb. the head of the agency at the time was putin. after litvinenko fled to london, and putin became president of russia, litvinenko attacked him relentlessly and by name. >> i and others said that this is a very dangerous thing to do because you're -- you're personalizing this. >> reporter: you told him that? >> yes. >> reporter: but marina and

others believe the ultimate motive may not have been personal at all, rather, it was all about money. we learned that in 2005 and 2006 litvinenko made multiple visits to spain helping prosecutors take down a major organized crime ring. one that litvinenko publicly claimed had financial ties to president putin. putin's office has never responded to that allegation. anne applebaum, a pulitzer prize winning author and expert on russia -- >> i think anything that litvinenko was doing that came close to the source of putin's personal wealth would have been by far the most dangerous things that he could do. >> reporter: in addition to a possible motive there was also the means. paul joyal says the fact that polonium was used to kill litvinenko leaves little doubt as to who authorized the murder. so does that mean it had to be putin? it could have been someone else with access to --

>> come on, come on, you're not going to engage in an act of nuclear terrorism in downtown london without the knowledge of the office of the president. >> today we begin the open hearings in the inquiry into the death of alexander litvinenko. >> reporter: in january 2015, a public inquiry opened in london. it's a victory for marina, who, along with her attorneys, fought not eight-year legal battle to make it happen. on the opening day, her attorney argued the evidence leads to one disturbing conclusion, which litvinenko himself reached before he died. >> mr. litvinenko came to the awful realization that he had been the victim of a political assassination by agents of the russian state. >> reporter: and in march 2015, an expert witness testified the polonium that killed litvinenko could have only come from russia. the kremlin ignored the inquiry. president putin's spokesman

declined our request for an interview. and in 2015 putin gave lugovoi a medal, the order of merit to the fatherland, second class, for his work in the duma. you think russia will ever come clean and this will be known? >> i believe one day we will know this. it will be very obvious for people to decide. >> reporter: in the years she's been looking for answers, other questions have multiplied, other deaths have been recorded. there was boris berezovsky the russian oligarch litvinenko said he refused to assassinate. another prominent critic of putin. in 2013, he was found dead in his london home. originally called a suicide, last year a judge said he couldn't rule out murder. >> the way he killed himself -- >> reporter: he hanged himself with a scarf. >> with a scarf, in the bathroom, and the fact that his bodyguard was not there, it raises questions. >> reporter: in february, 2015, another putin opponent, boris

nemtsov, was gunned down in the shadow of the kremlin. several suspects have been arrested, and the office of the president has denied involvement. the victim was about to lead a major rally against putin. it went on without him. all of this intrigue and violence may seem very far away. but when nbc news consultant paul joyal was shot just a few miles from the capital, he and his wife immediately thought it was a hit. a big reason, the timing. >> it's four days after i accused the president of being responsible for the -- the horrible murder of litvinenko on your network. >> reporter: in early 2007, joyal appeared in a "dateline" report on the litvinenko case. he blamed vladimir putin for the murder. just four days later he was almost murdered himself. you think they were related? >> i don't think there's any doubt. >> people out in the general public say, oh, that's in russia.

it's never going to happen here. but i know that it could happen here, too. i know that it can happen here because it happened to my husband. >> reporter: there's no proof the joyals are right, but paul's sailents have never been caught. and elizabeth joyal admits at first she was angry when he agreed to be interviewed again for this program. >> i said, what are you thinking? why do you want to bring notice once again? but then when the man in russia was shot, i had a kind of an epiphany. wait a minute. someone needs to talk about this. someone needs to say this is not right. >> reporter: can i ask you an obvious question? why are you still doing this? why are you talking to me now, against -- >> against the advice and counsel of my family? [ laughter ] well, it may be foolish, but i think it's the right thing to do.

>> reporter: that's all for now. i'm richard engel. thanks for joini nbc bay area news starts now. >> right now at 11:00, another rain system heading our way. expect a wet commute tomorrow. going to show you exactly where and when it's coming in. good evening, everybody, i'm terry mcsweeney. peggy bunker has the night off. it's deja vu from just last week. expect another monday morning rainy bay area commute. the bay area got a dose of rain today. this is what it looked like in san jose. this is from about 2:00 this afternoon. nbc bay area photographer scott walker using his dash cam to show the slick roadways be. careful out there. our radar on the left here showing the storm heading in. and you can see what it looks like on the