Putin probably approved Litvinenko murder – inquiry

Christopher Meyer, the former British ambassador to the United States, told Sky News: “The consequences of this has created the worst crisis in British-Russian relations since 1971”.

The agent, Alexander Litvinenko, died in 2006 after drinking tea laced with radioactive poison.

On Thursday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the death of Litvinenko could have been “lifted right out of a spy novel”, calling it full of “salacious details”.

The British government says it will freeze the assets of the two suspects.

Despite the inquiry’s conclusion, however, the prime minister acknowledged that Britain would continue to work with Moscow on a range of worldwide issues.

“I am satisfied that, in general terms, members of the Putin administration, including the president himself and the FSB, had motives for taking action against Litvinenko, including killing him”, Owen wrote in his report.

Europe Minister David Lidington repeated Britain’s demand that Russian Federation hand over the two prime suspects. The poison used in the killing – the radioactive isotope polonium-210 – is exceptionally toxic and posed a huge potential public health risk, after traces of it were left in multiple locations around London by the murderers.

“Maybe this is a joke”, he said, adding that such a “quasi-inquiry” could only “add more poison to the atmosphere of our bilateral ties”.

“We will never accept anything arrived at in secret and based on the evidence not tested in the open court of law”, said the ambassador. The Russian government is denying any involvement.

“The fact that Litvinenko was poisoned with polonium-210 that had been manufactured in a nuclear reactor suggests that Lugovoi and Kovtun were acting for a state body rather than say a criminal organisation”, the inquiry report said.

“As we expected, there were no surprises”, he said.

It was a claim rejected by the Kremlin as politically motivated.

The ex-spy was regarded as having betrayed the FSB by accusing it of 1999 apartment block bombings that killed more than 200 and which Moscow, launching an offensive to restore control over the southern region of Chechnya, blamed on Chechens.

According to the Russian news agency Interfax, Lugovoi described Judge Owen’s findings as “absurd”.

“The FSB (Russian security agency) operation to kill Litvinenko was probably approved by…”

The Russian Foreign Ministry said the public inquiry was politicised.

As a lawmaker, he is now immune from prosecution in Russian Federation.

Litvinenko, an exiled former spy turned British informant, fled to Britain in 2000 and became an outspoken critic of Putin. “President Putin”, Owen from London’s High Court on Thursday. In a statement before his death, he accused Mr Putin of ordering his murder.

Litvinenko, a former KGB agent and expert in organized crime, defected to Britain in 2001 and was highly critical of Russian intelligence services and Putin.

The report also names Russian politicians Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun as those who arranged the poisoning. Both men have denied involvement.