Russia: UK spy inquiry not objective at all

Moscow on Thursday slammed the results of a British inquiry into the poisoning death of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko after the findings said President Vladimir Putin “probably approved” the killing.

Owen said the method of killing, with radioactive poison, fit with the deaths of several other opponents of Putin and his government, and noted that Putin had “supported and protected” Lugovoi since the killing, even awarding him a medal for services to the nation.

There was “personal antagonism” between Litvinenko and the Russian president.

Nikolai Patrushev was formerly head of the FSB.

He said there was a “strong probability” that Russia’s FSB, successor to the Soviet Union’s KGB spy agency, directed the killing and that the operation was “probably approved” by Putin, then as now the president of Russian Federation. Both deny it, and Moscow refuses to extradite them.

Russian Federation has repeatedly refused to extradite Lugovoy, who called the accusations “politically motivated”.

Owen said the case for Russian state involvement was circumstantial but strong.

The inquiry heard evidence that Mr Litvinenko may have been consigned to a slow death from radiation rather than shot in order to “send a message”.

Lugovoi has been “lionised’ in Russia since the killing, becoming a member of the Duma, the Russian Parliament, and receiving an award from Mr Putin”.

She said outside the High Court on Thursday she was “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”.

And in his closing statement, the Litvinenko family’s lawyer, Ben Emmerson said that “no amount of synthetic defiance” from Putin could hide the truth revealed through the inquiry.

Insisting there were “always” wider political concerns that made reprisals hard, he added: “It would be craven for the Government, for the Prime Minister, to do nothing in response”.

“This was a blatant and unacceptable breach of the most fundamental tenets of worldwide law and civilised behaviour”.

He said the report “cannot be accepted by us as a verdict”. British Home Secretary Theresa May announced asset freezes on the two men.

Announcing his findings at London’s Royal Courts of Justice, Owen said that “there can be no doubt that Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned by Mr. Lugovoi and Mr. Kovtun” in the Pine Bar of London’s luxury Millennium Hotel on November 1, 2006.

The image of Litvinenko lying on his bed at London’s University College Hospital, gaunt and having lost his hair, was emblazoned across British and other Western newspapers and later shown to the inquiry.

Lugovoi also claimed he would have liked to testify at the inquiry but “was not allowed”. She said Britain’s decision to hold a public inquiry on the case was politically motivated and that the process was not transparent for the Russian side or the public.

He suggested the immediate expulsion of every FSB operative in the United Kingdom and strengthened economic sanctions.

Europe Minister David Lidington repeated Britain’s demand that Russian Federation hand over the two prime suspects.

After leaving the FSB, Litvinenko blamed the service for orchestrating a series of apartment bombings in Russian Federation in 1999 that left hundreds dead and led to Russia’s invasion of Chechnya later that year.

His meeting at the Foreign Office lasted less than an hour.

Responding to the report today, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said, “We regret that the purely criminal case has been politicized and has marred the entire atmosphere of bilateral relations”.

The Foreign Office called the findings “deeply disturbing, demonstrating a flagrant disregard for United Kingdom law, global law and standards of conduct, and the safety of United Kingdom citizens”.