British Judge: Putin ‘Probably Approved’ Litvinenko’s Killing

But the findings have been dismissed by Moscow. He obtained British citizenship several years afterwards and was granted asylum.

Home Secretary Theresa May said the government would summon Russia’s ambassador to London to express its displeasure at Moscow’s failure to cooperate with the investigation into Mr Litvinenko’s death.

A day later Litvinenko’s family releases a statement accusing Putin of involvement in his death.

– The report notes that prior to the poisoning, Kovtun had told a witness that Litvinenko was to be poisoned rather than shot because “it is meant to set an example”.

Owen said there were “powerful motives” for the killing. He worked with British intelligence and criticized Putin. He also accused Putin of being behind the 2006 contract-style slaying of Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist who exposed human rights abuses in Chechnya. As an expert study found, he was poisoned with radioactive polonium but the circumstances of his death have not been established to date. According to his wife, Litvinenko was on his deathbed when he blamed Putin for his condition.

“I am of course very pleased that the words my husband spoke on his death bed when he accused Mr. Putin of his murder have been proved true”, Marina Litvinenko said.

She called UK Prime Minister David Cameron to impose economic sanctions against Russian Federation. “It [signalled] that the prime minister would do nothing in the face of the damaging findings of Sir Robert Owen”.

Britain’s scope for strong action is limited, however.

The New York Timesreports that British diplomats don’t want a little extrajudicial killing to prevent continued cooperation between Russian Federation and the West over resolving the war in Syria.

Published in the report as evidence, the article recounted a meeting between Putin and a boy “aged four or five” in a square near the Kremlin.

The British government is promising action, pursuing justice and freezing assets in relation to the case. Both men deny any involvement. In an interview Thursday with the Associated Press, he called the British investigation a “spectacle”.

She told AFP after the hearing: “I can’t say it is what I hoped for but I really appreciate it”. The inquiry identified Lugovoi and ex-KGB agent Dmitri Kovtun as the likely perpetrators of the poisoning.

The report, which contained classified evidence redacted from the version made public, said this suggested that Lugovoi and Kovtun “were acting for a state body rather than, say, a criminal organisation”. Russian Federation refuses to extradite the two men.

Downing Street strongly rejected an assertion from Mr Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov that the report was an example of “subtle British humour”.

High polonium contamination was found in the teapot and the hotel bar, and traces of the highly radioactive substance were left across London including offices, hotels, planes and Arsenal soccer club’s Emirates Stadium.

CBS News correspondent Charlie D’Agata reports Litvinenko became violently ill and was dead within three weeks.

– Litvinenko, a former security agent turned Kremlin critic, died on November 23, 2006, from a heart attack resulting from a ingesting a fatal dose of polonium 210.