Vladimir Putin ‘probably’ ordered murder of ex-spy

Litvinenko was murdered in November 2006 when a small amount of polonium-210, a highly toxic and radioactive substance, was slipped into his tea at the Millennium Hotel in London.

“The FSB operation to kill Mr Litvinenko was probably approved by Mr Patrushev, then head of the FSB, and also by President Putin”, Judge Owen said.

On his deathbed, Litvinenko accused Putin of ordering his killing, but this is the first public official statement linking the Russian president to the crime, and it sent a chilling jolt through U.K.-Russia relations.

Moscow has always strongly denied involvement in Litvinenko’s death, and Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zhakarova said Thursday that the government does not consider Owen’s conclusions to be objective or impartial.

On Thursday, she added: “Now it is time for (British Prime Minister) David Cameron”.

British Home Secretary Theresa May said the involvement of the Russian state was “a blatant and unacceptable breach of the most fundamental tenets of global law and civilized behavior” – but not a surprise.

The White House isn’t ruling out future punitive action against Russia after a British judge concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin probably approved a plan to kill a former FSB security service agent who had become a Kremlin critic.

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. 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.

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

Lugovoi also claimed he would have liked to testify at the inquiry but “was not allowed”. “The insane evidence is easily refuted”, the Tass news agency reported him as saying.

A public inquiry into Litvinenko’s death says President Putin had “probably” personally authorised the 2006 killing.

An inquiry led by British judge Robert Owen has concluded former KGB bodyguard Andrei Lugovoy and another Russian, Dmitry Kovtun, poisoned Litvinenko as part of an operation directed by Russia’s Federal Security Service, the main heir to the Soviet-era KGB.

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. The judge found that Lugovoi and Kovtun had left a trail of radioactive polonium particles as they traveled across London, with the strongest readings coming from a washbasin in Kovtun’s bedroom. Putin’s motives were not just of political nature, but it was also revealed that there was strong “personal antagonism” between the president and Litvinenko.

Litvinenko himself said he was working for Britain’s spy services, though British authorities have never confirmed it.

Even on his deathbed, the spy blamed Putin for the poisoning.