Department V (also known as Vympel)

(Вымпел meaning Pennant, also known as Vega Group or Spetsgruppa V) is a Russian counter-terrorism unit. In 1981, the Soviet Politburo secretly approved a proposal, from then KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov and Gen. Yuri Drozdov, for Vympel within the First Chief Directorate of the KGB as a dedicated OSNAZ unit. The unit specialized in deep penetration, sabotage, universal direct and covert action, embassy protection and spy cell activation in case of war. It was a covert unit in Russian intelligence whose officers are trained to "liquidate" people abroad.

This special unit of the Russian secret service could have provided the polonium that killed the former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko. Sources in Russia have suggested that a secret unit called Department V could have obtained the radioactive substance that has left a trail across Europe.

Polonium 210 is only produced in a small number of state-controlled facilities and Department V, also known as Vympel, is charged with guarding Russia's nuclear installations. The "Spetsnaz", or special forces unit was responsible for assassination operations abroad in the Soviet era and is supported by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Like Dignity and Honour, the group of former FSB officers accused of targeting Mr Litvinenko, Vympel also has a veterans group, headed by Sergei Shestov a former commander in the unit. The group says: "Love of homeland and civil consciousness and fulfilment of the high military duty are eternal truths which have always been followed by the members of Vympel."

It also runs a private security enterprise called "Lubyanka", named after the former headquarters of the KGB, which offers the "protection of property of proprietors during its transportation" and complex services for foreign businessmen who visit Russia." "Whether Department V actually exists is a real question," Mark Galeotti, a Russian expert at Keele University, said yesterday. "But I believe that Vympel is back." "It used to be a hit squad and maybe it is still used as such but its main function is as a rapid reaction group to counter nuclear theft and terrorism. As such it has some training in various isotopes, although they would not be true specialists, and runs operations at nuclear facilities, which may well have given members the opportunity to access polonium in a more subtle way than sending an order from Moscow."