When Mario Scaramella met Alexander Litvinenko at the Itsu sushi bar in London to warn him of an apparent threat to both their lives, the former Russian spy dismissed the document -- which purported to detail the plot against the two men, as well as three others -- as being "like the plot of a film."
One of the documents mentioned a Russian judo master who was slightly lame in his right leg, but speaks good Portuguese and arranges "special operations."
It seemed far-fetched, and Litvinenko certainly did not believe it.
In an interview last week, Scaramella, an Italian academic and espionage expert, said: "Alex laughed it off.
He didn't have faith in the person who sent the message and said the whole thing was incredible. He said it was not realistic at all."
Since that meeting in Itsu, Litvinenko has died from an overdose of polonium-210.
On Friday, Scaramella tested positive for the radioactive substance.
The documents, e-mail warnings, were believed to have come from the son of an officer in the FSB -- Russia's state security organization -- and were brought to London by Scaramella, who was worried about the details in them.
The e-mails claimed Russian intelligence officers "speak more and more about the necessity to use force" against a number of named enemies.
In addition to Litvinenko and Scaramella, one of the documents said Russian intelligence was targeting Paolo Guzzanti, an Italian senator and chairman of the Mitrokhin commission, which investigates KGB infiltration of Italy. Scaramella is a consultant to that inquiry.
The document said that Russian security services believed that the two Italians were in collusion with "enemy no.1 of Russia," the London-based businessman Boris Berezovsky, and two of his associates -- Litvinenko and Vladimir Bukovsky, a Russian dissident living in exile in Britain.
* Alexander Litvinenko: Former spy and critic of Putin's regime.
* Mario Scaramella: Consultant to the Italian Mitrokhin inquiry.
* Paolo Guzzanti: Chairman of the Mitrokhin commission.
* Boris Berezovsky: London-based Russian oligarch.
* Vladimir Bukovsky: Russian living in exile in the UK.
Source: The Guardian
Italy's Mitrokhin investigations, it said, "are considered in Moscow as purely provocative towards Russia."
Valentin Velichko, ex-KGB general and head of a security service veterans' group, Dignity and Honour, was also named in the documents as involved in the "planning of actions" against Guzzanti and Scaramella.
There was no evidence connecting him to the poisoning of Litvinenko or Scaramella.
The second e-mail identified an alleged assassin, an officer in Russia's Spetsnaz special forces.
He was described as having black hair and a lean build. The email said he "speaks well English and Portugal, is master in judo" and was on a reconnaissance mission to Naples.
Despite his reservations, Litvinenko promised to check the information and to get back to him.
Scaramella had regular meetings with Litvinenko to discuss matters relating to the Russian security services.
"Alex had a huge breadth of knowledge of both the KGB and the FSB. He had incredible archives and contacts," Scaramella said.
On one occasion, Litvinenko gave him information about an arms smuggling plot in which six men from Kiev were attempting to smuggle grenades and a detonation system in hollowed-out Bibles into Italy.
The men were arrested and are currently going through the Italian judiciary system. It has been alleged that the weapons were intended to kill Guzzanti.
Velichko left Moscow on Friday of last week for an unknown destination but in an interview while Litvinenko was hospitalized he rubbished the idea of security service involvement with the alleged poisoning, saying the former FSB officer "probably ate some bad sushi."
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