United Kingdom judge to rule on Russian involvement in Litvinenko death

David Cameron has suggested fresh sanctions could be imposed on Russian Federation, after an inquiry concluded Alexander Litvinenko was “deliberately poisoned” in an operation “probably” approved by Vladimir Putin.

“Such terminology is not allowed in our judicial practice nor is it allowed in the judicial practice of other countries and certainly can not be deemed by us as a verdict in any of its parts”, the spokesman said.

“I think that – yet again – Great Britain has shown that anything that involves their political interests, they’ll make a top priority”, he said.

A public inquiry in Britain has concluded that there is “strong probability” that the murder of ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko was approved by Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Mr Litvinenko, 43, a prominent Kremlin critic, died three weeks after drinking tea laced with radioactive polonium-210 – an extremely expensive radioactive isotope available only in closed nuclear facilities – at an upmarket London hotel in 2006.

There was also “undoubtedly a personal dimension to the antagonism” between Mr Putin and Mr Litvinenko. The UK has already requested Russian Federation to provide information about the case and extradite Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun.

Marina Litvinenko, widow of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, centre, with her solicitor Elena Tsirlina, leaves Matrix Chambers on Gray¿s Inn following a press conference and media interviews in London, Thursday Jan. 21, 2016.

“It is obvious that the decision to stop the coroner’s investigation and start public hearings had a politicized basis”, she noted.

Litvinenko was a former Russian security agent who came to Britain in 2000 after turning whistle-blower on the FSB, the successor agency to the KGB.

Concluding the inquiry, Sir Robert Owen said it was likely the Russian leader signed off on the killing of the former spy following a long-running feud.

May said that the conclusion that the Russian state is probably involved in the murder of Litvinenko was “deeply disturbing”.

Home Secretary Theresa May also told parliament the killing was “a blatant and unacceptable breach of the most fundamental tenets of global law”.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin hit back on Thursday, calling Owen’s claims surrounding Litvinenko’s death preposterous.

He said the findings of the inquiry published on Thursday continued Britain’s “anti-Russian hysteria” which he said began after “the events in Ukraine in 2014”.

Litvinenko’s family blames Putin, whom Litvinenko criticized repeatedly.

Mrs Litvinenko said: “I’m of course very pleased that the words my husband spoke on his deathbed when he accused Mr Putin of his murder have been proved true in an English court with the high standards of independence and fairness”.

Responding to the report, Mr Lugovoi, who is now a politician in Russia, said the accusations against him were “absurd”, the Russian news agency Interfax was quoted as saying.

“We regret that a purely criminal case has been politicised and has darkened the general atmosphere of bilateral relations”.