i'm greg melvin he said, quote, the bastard's got me. >> he was once a kgb agent but turned into a vocal critic of russia. when he was poisoned in london, and made headlines around the world. a lethal toxin in a cup of tea. >> it's almost a tiny bomb. >> why was he killed? don ravel the mystery we followed the tale of a dark conspiracy. >> are you fine for your life? >> we'll meet and confront the prime suspects. >> and now, is the danger

coming closer? >> two men waiting and pushes one month said, shoot him. >> an attack on the expert helping us in the story. >> people say, all, this is not gonna happen. i know that i cannot be here, because i happened to my husband. alone or come to dateline. former russian agent alexander clinical was a vocal critic of the russian government. but in his world, accessed information could make you a very rich man or aided one. his murder set off an international investigation to discover who wanted him silenced. here's richard angle with a spy games. >> a former russian agent poisoned. a multimillionaire found that dennis bathroom.

and investigative reporter executed in front of our home. their lives have been interconnected. but what about their deaths? random acts? or as some suspect, part of an international murder conspiracy? that stretches across two continents and several world capitals. we'll investigate who wanted them that, and why. the case will take us from moscow, to rome the london. into a world of spies and spy catchers, of corruption. those who dare to expose it, a world in which murder happens often. >> was there a hit list in mind? >> i'm sure there was. but our story begins closer to home. on a late winter evening, paul

jovial, an intelligence analyst, was driving to his house just outside washington d.c.. it was quiet and dark. >> i got out of my car where the two men were reading in the bushes. they jump me. one man i fought with, and we ended up on the ground and it's a soul. and this one man said to someone else, i didn't see, shoot him. so, i covered my heart my arms and i turn to the side. and the shot went through me. >> one shot? >> one shot, and then i heard the click. >> another quick? >> right. and nothing happened. >> so your shot ones, and then you will to protect yourself. >> i hear a chamber, and the gun jumped. that one in time, the lights went on in my house. >> joyless wife elizabeth heard compulsion. >> and all of a sudden, i hear a shot.

and that just put me out. i knew it was a gunshot. i knew it was a gunshot, and i know it was close. >> she opened the door, and she saw her husband. >> he's wearing a raincoat, a suit, a half. and he's double over, and you can seasoned pain. and he looks and me and he says, i've been shot. >> the assailants had floods. elizabeth got joyal inside and called 9-1-1. >> as soon as that 9-1-1 call was done, i asked my son to lift my legs up because i wanted to make sure that most of the blood -- >> stays in the body? >> stays in the body. >> elizabeth is a registered nurse. her training kicked in. >> with no signs of external bleeding in that point, that kind of freaked me out, to. i know if it's not bleeding on the outside is waiting on the inside. >> an ambulance arrived and rushed joyal to the hospital. the 9 mm bullet had torn

through his bladder and intestines. they had to place him in a drug induced coma to save his life. he was unconscious for a month. local law enforcement initially assumed the shooting was a botched robbery, but elizabeth doyle believed otherwise. >> i didn't want to seem like this crazy conspiracy theory woman. but i knew that it was not a carjacking. there's just no way that it was just some random guy. it had to have been a planned attack. >> because nothing was stolen, and the assailants had clearly been lying in wait, which is why, when joyal came stumping into the house with a bullet wound, he told his wife to call his business partner, a former russian spy master. >> i warned them i was shot. >> so, if you're warning your

russian business partner that you got shot, you clearly didn't think this was a botched robbery carjacking. you thought this was related to your work, related to russian connections. >> well, i don't think there's any doubt. >> someone had tried to kill him just like the other guy in london. >> the other guy? a former kgb agent and friend of joyless killed three months earlier and london. assassinated with a weapon so frightening and exotic, investigators almost missed. a weapon that raised the spectrum of state sponsored murder. >> coming up, we trace the steps of a mysterious attack from bus, to bar, to death. >> he was going through unspeakable torment. >> when dateline continues. line continues line continues for adventure. your home...

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we don't know why -- >> american intelligence expert paula joyal recovered from his near fatal shooting. in january 2015, he traveled with those still london to tell us the story of what happened on important contact of his

just a few months before joyle was shot. >> he was along forsman officer. he worked for the colon of the fbi. >> yeah. >> in anti corruption? >> anti-corruption was he was most interested in. >> his name was alexander, slash out to his friends. but his interest in fighting corruption had made him a lot of enemies. including in his own agency, the kgb, which was really nine, the fsb. he was forced to leave russia with his wife and son and seek asylum in london, where he quickly called the attention of agents of the british intelligence service mi6. glenn moore was a retired and very charming mi6 analyst who was asked to befriend him. the british wanted to find out what he knew about his former colleagues in the russian secret services.

>> was he credible? >> yes, he was. >> credible enough that mi6 eventually began paying a monthly salary. trading information for money was one way for a former russian agent to make a living in his new home in london. then suddenly, in 2006 -- he got very sick. >> it was just incredibly strong and heavy sickness. just suddenly stopped. >> his wife merino watched him wastes away in a matter of just days. >> it was all full. his hair started to fall out. and he started to look like a conservation treated by chemotherapy.

>> i knew he was going through unspeakable torment. >> finally, they found enough blood, he might have been poisoned. >> poisoned. doctor suspected maybe he'd ingested volume, commonly found in rat poison, and treatable with an antidote. >> finally, we know what happened to sacha. and we're all under control, and he will be safe. >> but it wasn't under control. the antidote didn't work. he didn't get better. he got worse. before long, even close friends like andre could barely recognize him. >> at some point, i said to myself, why should this be happening to this young healthy

handsome athletic man? what's going on? >> he was fighting for his life. >> a fight he would lose. >> i'm sorry to announce that alexander died in university college hospital at 9:21 on the 23rd of november 2006. >> but in the days just before his death, he did something remarkable. he knew he was dying, and decided to helps scotland yard detective solve his murder. he gave them a series of death interviews. the transcripts provide a remarkably detailed account of his movements on the day he was poisoned. his account starts at 10 am when he received a phone call from an italian contact mario's car a mellow, who have just arrived in london and insisted he needed to meet litvinenko a mediately. he said he had urgent news. they agreed to meet this afternoon. at 3:10 pm, let's funding cohen

's carmella were spotted on a security camera walking washed on because the least. they came to the sushi restaurant where looks fun inchoate lunch. scary mullah said, he wasn't hungry. lieutenant john's kamala parted ways after lunch. i 3:48 pm, but fanatical was caught on another security camera talking on the cell phone. >> let's finish with an walks about a mile to the millennium will tell which is literally right across the street of the u.s. embassy. as that modern looking building over there. it's one of the most secure neighborhoods on all of london. >> one of the hotel security cameras recorded look fun and go alive-ing in the lobby at 3:59 pm. he was there to meet andre lieu gavel another former fsb agent scene here wearing a black leather jacket. luke avoided is on security consulting firm he and listening go have been talking about doing some business

together and london. the two had met several times over the past year. this time, he brought along a buddy a man named dimitri. he's the one in the black turtleneck. it was a quick meeting. 11 include drank just half a cup of tea, then left. around 5 pm he caught a ride home. that night, he fell ill and three weeks later, he was that. so, who slipped him poisoned that day? putting his murder into motion? he told scotland yard to tech gifts before he died that he didn't know when or who had poisoned him. but he had no doubt that one or more of the men he had met that day, the two russians, or the italian, was his killer. naturally, we wanted to talk to all three. >> coming -- up we tracked down the first

suspect that he named. >> are you frightened for your life? >> when "dateline" continues. to help prevent bleeding gums, try saying hello gumwash with parodontax active gum health. it kills 99% of plaque bacteria and forms an antibacterial shield. try parodontax active gum health mouthwash.

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♪ “baby one more time” by britney spears ♪ >> alexander litvinenko, the e*trade now from morgan stanley.

former russian agent, the man friends called sasha, died without knowing what killed

him. the results from a battery of tests came into late. that they did come in. it turned out he was killed by something far more lethal than common rat poison. >> it's polonium. >> polonium 210, to be exact. a rare and deadly radioactive isotopes. the news shop the world even though most people were 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 redo activity. >> it's a horrible death. it's a gruesome death. he lived longer 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, for something else.

why if he had died 12 hours earlier wouldn't have made a difference? >> because they wouldn't have found out. they would've marked the death certificate, as death unknown. unknown, unknown assailants, turn the page, move on. them >> it's a key of this murder. polonium 210 was discovered. and now we exactly know what so she was killed by polonium 210. >> it's an almost perfect murder weapon. polonium has no smell, little taste, and without specialized equipment, it's undetectable. the amount that killed litvinenko slipped into something he ate or drank, was no larger than a grain of salt. that still 1000 times the lethal dose. and that tiny bit of polonium would've been enormously expensive. >> eight to $12 million to be able to get the portion that went into him. >> the who could get hold of such an expensive and exotic weapon. and 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. 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, the new york, and london. he finally agreed on rome and we finally agreed out why he has been so skittish. >> [speaking italian] >> 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 way day he was. poison >> litvinenko thought you poisoned him.

>> yes. >> you didn't poison? >> absolutely not. >> from his perspective, it does make sense. >> no, sure. everything is very strange. >> he had been working for the italian government and sometimes used litvinenko as a source for investigations into the russian mob and spy rings. he was giving you names of russian mafia members? >> yes. >> who are connected to the intelligence service? >> exactly. >> something that was short to upset both the mobsters and the fsb. scaramella told us that in that an october october dads and six, the month before litvinenko was poisoned, he began receiving frightening emails. 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. >> the emails amounted to a hit list. the next name up -- >> 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 -- >> he says it's b. s.? >> i think it's just a provocation. check on what's happening. >> 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? [laughs] >> 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 slim from a slug all the way across, polonium was popping up everywhere.

>> but not in scaramella. no polonium in his body or anywhere he had been. so, scotland yard took a hard look at the two russians, lugovoi and kovtun. when detectives retrace their steps, they found polonium contamination everywhere. >> we see the same fingerprints of the polonium in multiple places where they were. >> business offices. hotels. a hookah bar, a strip club, a soccer stadium, and the millennium hotel's pine bar were they last met litvinenko. that's where investigators hit the jackpot. these 3d graphics put together by scotland yard show the entire pine bar was contaminated with polonium. with extreme hotspots on a table and chair. and the levels found inside his teapot were off the charts. paul joyal wonders how many people were unwittingly expos. exposed. >> do we know ultimately what

the final cost of this use of polonium is? someone who is washing dishes in the pine bar, or in a hotel cleaning crew? >> five months after's death, scotland yard issued an arrest warrant for lugovoi. kovtun would come later. the two responded with a press conference in moscow, stating their innocence. >> [speaking russian] . >> russia refused to extradite them. so we travel to moscow to find the men who were wanted in connection with litvinenko's murder. >> coming up -- the stakes get even higher as we confront the top russian official. when "dateline" continues. this is koli. my foster fail (laughs). when i first started fostering koli i had been giving him kibble. it never looked or felt like real food. but with the farmer's dog you can see the pieces of turkey.

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nbc news was not been able to come from this, but they may general for a lot of the eighth general to be killed in ukraine. back here at home in grand rapids michigan, people are protesting after 26-year-old patrick video was shot. when demonstrations are going to come as calls of justice ignite across the city. now, back to dateline. the city now, back to dateline. >> in the dead of winter, 2015, we arrived in moscow, in effort to find out not only who killed former russian agent alexander litvinenko, but why. this is home to andrei lugovoi and dmitry 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 come in 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. >> who needs this little petty person? he was just a piece of rubbish. >> 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. >> surveillance on your family? >> exactly. >> and a rage litvinenko did now do 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. litvinenko even claimed he had 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. >> he didn't think it would get him in trouble? >> he said, they will kill me or they will arrest me. >> he was jailed for nine months. but that billionaire he had 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. >> they don't pass that just for the sake of passing it. you have to have somebody in mind. >> 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 did shed any tears when that happened but last off the notion that the russian state with connected in any way. fourth one simple reason. he thinks russian agents would have done a better job. >> and surprised that the uk special services and the uk court accuses russia that with a bag of polonium they came to london and we're just throwing it around. >> it just doesn't make sense to a lot of people that russia didn't kill him. >> for 100 years, the russian

special services have been using that kind of substances for killing people that you never will be able to recognize. why do we have to go into some kind of bar and put it in someone's tea cup and everybody is laughing at us? i mean, the state cannot be emboldened. >> litvinenko's friend paul joyal, who believes he was a 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. >> you think that any of them do you want that substance was? you think that they knew that they were giving him polonium? >> why wouldn't they have known

their handling. >> because you don't want them to know? >> but they could've done a better job of not spreading it over the case. >> if they knew, they also might see no. there's no way i'm going to do that. >> i don't want to handle this radio active -- >> i'm not going to kill myself in the process. >> to get closer to the truth about who killed litvinenko, we had to talk to the suspects themselves. andrei lugovoi and dmitry kovtun. in kovtun's case, it was an easy. a few weeks after litvinenko died of polonium poisoning, kovtun was hospitalized and lost all his here. he hasn't been seen publicly since 2012. that left lugovoi. when we got here, he didn't want to speak to us. but on the second day of our trip, he called and said he was ready to talk. >> coming up -- we ask the question the world wants answered. >> did you put polonium in the tea? >> when "dateline" continues.

>> meet andrei lugovoi. one of the men scotland yard believes conspire to poison former agent alexander litvinenko. we've been negotiating an conspired to interview for weeks. poison he agreed, then backed out, alexander litvinenko. we had then finally, sat down with been negotiating an interview for us. weeks. , we what did you think of agreed, then backed, litvinenko? out then finally sat down with us. >> what did you think? were you friendly. were would you consider yourself you friendly? france? did you consider yourselves friends? >> >> i have always said that we i have always have never been friends. said that he was a very complicated person. we have never been slightly crazy, i would say. friends. he was he was given to conspiracy a very complicated person and slightly theories. crazy, i would to blowing things up out of say, all proportions. given to conspiracy theories, to blowing things >> he and litvinenko both used up out of

all to work for the fsb. proportion. both had served time in jail. >> he and litvinenko both used to work for the fsb. it was a bond between them. had lugovoi done very well in both had served time in jail. business after that and open a it was a bond between them. security consulting firm. had lugovoi done very well in he says he and litvinenko met business after that and open a several times in london to security consulting firm. discuss doing business there together. he says he and litvinenko met including that now infamous several times in london to meeting in the pine bar, were discuss doing business there together. scotland yard says litvinenko was poisoned. lugovoi says the meeting was including that now infamous meeting in the pine bar, we are scotland yard says linfa nato said -- was poisoned. lugovoi says the meeting was no big deal. so what do you remember about sitting there at the table? >> i remember that we talked with litvinenko about nothing in particular. and now for eight years, i am under suspicion. >> your under suspicion because the investigation says there was polonium in that tea pot. did you put any polonium in the tea? >> 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? >> but scotland yard's 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? >> richard. you're 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 a court, which is done frequently. >> as for his last meeting with litvinenko at the pine bar, lugovoi says there is no way he bought polonium on that trip because his wife and children were with him. >> a persons we can 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 a container, would i take my family along? i'm a rational man.

i couldn't do it. >> not only did he continue to maintain his innocence, he offered his own theory about who poisoned the teeth. t. could someone have put something in there without you noticing? >> 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 mi6? he brings the polonium and pours it into the cup. that's agatha christie stuff. >> mi6 is british intelligence. lugovoi says perhaps the brits killed litvinenko to embarrass russia. retired mi6 analyst trenear - harvey says that's nonsense. if for no other reason because mi6 would never use such an expensive weapon to kill anyone. >> if the british wanted to kill him, they were he he would have fallen out of the hotel window. and placed in front of a car. we wouldn't have spent $12

million in a costly fashion like this. >> you would have made an accident? >> indeed. >> things are less expensive, old-fashioned bullets and bodies work more effectively, cheaply. >> why not shoot him? >> i didn't say they would have. could possibly. we don't do that sort of thing. >> >> also remember, litvinenko was working for mi6. and it was lugovoi at his partner dmitry 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 in james individuals who are supposedly enemies of the russian state.

his high profile here is just one reason that many people who spectrum of murder think he did not act 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. >> because you're unleashing a radioactive substance? it's almost a tiny little dirty bomb. >> it's nuclear terrorism. >> of all his enemies, litvinenko may have infuriated one more than any other. coming up -- >> i have said that this is a very dangerous thing to do because your personalizing this. >> when "dateline" continues. why hide your skin if dupixent has your moderate-to-severe eczema, or atopic dermatitis under control? hide my skin? not me. because dupixent targets a root cause of eczema, it helps heal your skin from within, keeping you one step ahead of it.

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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. for years now, litvinenko widow, marina, has been asking how big was a conspiracy? who was behind it? how high did it go? dangerous questions that she knows better than anyone? >> you think you play chess, but they play russian roulette. >> 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 is

putin is as corrupt as anybody. as anybody in post communist russia. >> 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 your personalizing this. >> you told him that? >> yes. >> but marina and others believe that 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, an expert on russia. >> i think that anything litvinenko was doing that came close to the source of putin's personal wealth, would have been by far the most dangerous thing that he could do. >> 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 would have to be putin? it could've been someone else with access to -- ? >> come on, you're not going engage in an act of nuclear terrorism in downtown london without the knowledge of the president. >> we begin today open hearings into the death of of alexander litvinenko. >> in january, 2015, a public inquiry opened in london. it was a victory for marina, who along with her attorneys, for an 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 reach 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. >> an expert witness testified that the polonium that killed him could only have come from russia. president putin's spokesman declined our request for an interview. and in march 2015, putin gave luke avoid a mental. 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. >> in the years she has been looking for answers, other questions have multiplied and

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, a judge said he couldn't rule out murder. >> the way he killed himself -- >> he hanged himself with a scarf? >> a scarf, in the bathroom. and the fact that his bodyguard was not there. it raises questions. >> in february, 2015, another putin critic, boris nemtsov, was gunned down in the shadow of the kremlin. the victim was about to lead a major rally against putin. it went on without him. five chechnya nationals were arrested and put on trial. they have denied denied involvement in the murders. >> nemtsov's party colleague, vladimir kara - murza suspected putin loyalists were behind the assassination. >> people should not be killed

for their political activity, because they happen to disagree with the government. the leader of the russian opposition, boris nemtsov was killed, gunned down, because he opposed the putin regime. for no other reason. >> putin's office has denied involvement in nemtsov's killing. less than three months after nemtsov's murder, kara - murza himself became the target of an assassination attempt. in may 2015, kara - murza suddenly became violently ill. what was initially thought to be heart problems turned out to be poison. kara - murza recovered. but in 2017, he was poisoned again. >> i woke up because my heart was racing. my heart because just getting faster and faster and faster. and i could feel it. >> you woke up to this feeling? >> yeah, i don't even have

words to describe this. describe how you feel when you are trying to breathe and you cannot. and then you just slowly feel your whole body just giving up. >> this time, he barely escaped with his life and spent almost two weeks in a metal cleanest coma. he has never found out how he was poisoned. >> who do you think was responsive? all >> i can only presume that this was done by people with at least connections russian special services. >> the kremlin has denied any involvement in kara - murza's poisoning. since the 2016 u.s. presidential election, a number of russian diplomats and operatives have been killed or died under mysterious circumstances around the world. in march, 2017, the u.s. senate held hearings on russian involvement in the election. >> the american people need to fully understand the threat that we face and what we must do to protect ourselves in the future.

>> the former fbi agent clint watts was called to testify before the committee. >> follow the trail of dead russians. there is been more dead russians in the past three months that are tied to this investigation, who have assets in banks all over the world. they are dropping dead, even in western countries. >> so much of this intrigue and violence may seem very far away. that when nbc news consultant paul joyal was shot just a few miles from the capitol, he and his wife immediately thought it was a hit. a big reason? the timing. >> it's four days after of i've accused the president of being responsible for the horrible murder of litvinenko, on your network. >> in early 2007, joyal appeared in a dateline report on the litvinenko case. >> did putin ordering? >> did he know it. can't say that. can't say that

it may be foolish but i think it's the right thing to do. ight thing to do >> that's all for this edition of dateline, i'm natalie morales, thanks for watching. nks for watching atalie morales. >> i'm craig melvin, the -- and this is "dateline." >> she was beautiful. her eyes were remarkable. she was going to be there for me, didn't matter what it was. >> -- and there was nothing i could have done. >> skyler, rachel, sheila, total bff's. >> they hung out