Spy ‘probably’ killed in 2006 on Putin orders

According to British authorities, Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the poisoning of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.

Moscow has always strongly denied involvement in Litvinenko’s death, and Russian Federation refuses to extradite the two main suspects, Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun.

Lugovoy told Russian news agency Interfax that the accusations against him are “absurd” and that the inquiry’s findings “have once again shown London’s anti-Russian position, its closed-mindedness, and the Brits’ unwillingness to determine the true cause of Litvinenko’s death”. There he became an outspoken critic of the Kremlin under Putin and is said to have provided information to British intelligence services.

Marina Litvinenko, the victim’s widow, welcomed the inquiry’s “damning finding” and called for Britain to impose sanctions on Russian Federation.

She called for British Prime Minister David Cameron to take urgent steps against Russian agents operating inside Britain in light of the report.

“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.

Marina Litvinenko, who lived with her husband in Osier Crescent, said she wanted to see the immediate expulsion of all Russian intelligence operatives based at the London embassy.

Home secretary Theresa May described the murder as a blatant breach of global law.

The spokeswoman said measures taken against Russian Federation in 2007 remained in place, adding: “In the light of the inquiry’s findings, we are considering what further action we should take”.

– 2013: An inquest into Litvinenko’s killing – the usual method of examining an unexplained death – is stalled after it was barred from considering secret evidence about the possible role of the Russian state.

– Owen concluded there is a “strong probability” the poisoning came under the direction of Russia’s FSB spy agency, and that the operation was probably approved by then-FSB chief Nikolai Patrushev and by Putin.

In the years that followed Mr Litvinenko’s death, the case attracted an avalanche of claims and theories and threatened to plunge Anglo-Russian relations into crisis.

“I don’t believe a more disturbing report has ever been presented to this parliament”, Mr Burnham said.

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

“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, in late 2006”, Sir Robert wrote.

“I am sure that Mr Lugovoi and Mr Kovtun placed the polonium-210 in the teapot at the Pine Bar on Nov 1, 2006”, judge Robert Owen, the inquiry’s chairman, said in the report.