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Alexander Litvinenko

Inquiry: Putin 'probably' ordered ex-spy's murder

Doug Stanglin and Kim Hjelmgaard
USA TODAY
A file photo taken on May 23, 2007, shows a visitor as she looks at a painting showing former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in his hospital bed in London.


A formal British inquiry into the murder by poisoning of Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko has found the killing was "probably" approved personally by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The report, published Thursday in Britain, alleged that two Russian agents, Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun, were responsible for killing Litvinenko by slipping radioactive polonium-210 into his cup of green tea at London’s Millennium Hotel in 2006.

He died more than 3 weeks later at a London hospital. In a statement issued posthumously, he blamed Putin for the assassination.

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. He was also working for Britain's MI6 intelligence service at the time of his death.

British judge Robert Owen, who chaired the inquiry, said the 328-page report concluded the Russian leader could be circumstantially linked to Litvinenko's death because there was "a personal dimension" to the "antagonism" that existed between the two men that stretched back to when Putin was the head of the FSB, the successor to Russia's KGB.

A file photograph shows Russian businessman Andrei Lugovoi, right, and his partner Dmitry Kovtun at at press conference in Moscow in 2007.  A report of a British inquiry issued Jan.21, 2016, accused them of killing ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.

"Litvinenko made repeated highly personal attacks on President Putin, culminating in (an) allegation of paedophilia in July 2006," according to the report.

"The FSB operation to kill Mr. Litvinenko was probably approved by Mr. (Nikolai) Patrushev (then head of the FSB) and also by President Putin," the report said.

The court found Putin’s favorable treatment of Lugovoi since the killing shows “that the Russian state approves of Mr. Litvinenko’s killing, or at least that it wishes to signal approval for it.”

The inquiry also found it is “entirely possible” Lugovoi had been planning to target Litvinenko for more than two years.

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

In London, Russian Ambassador Alexander Yakovenko, who was summoned to the British Foreign Office to receive the report, said "this gross provocation of the British authorities cannot but damage our bilateral ties." Tass news agency reported.

The ambassador described the manner in which the case was "closed" to be a "flagrant provocation by the British authorities."

Lugovoi, who is now a member of the Russian parliament, called the charges against him "absurd." “These are lies, total lies, nonsense,” he told the radio station Ekho Moskvy.

Alexander Litvinenko, former KGB spy who defected to Britain is shown in  a 2002 file photo. He was fatally poisoned in 2006.

Lugovoi told the Interfax news agency the inquiry's findings "once again confirm London's anti-Russian position and the blinkered view and unwillingness of the British to establish the true cause of Litvinenko's death."

Kovtun, who has kept a lower public profile, said the charges were based on "falsified and fabricated evidence," the Interfax news agency reported.

British Home Secretary Theresa May, who is in charge of justice issues, said the inquiry's conclusions were "deeply disturbing" and a "blatant and unacceptable breach of international law and civilized behavior."

May also told lawmakers the government is summoning the Russian ambassador to express its "profound displeasure."

She also noted that Interpol notices and European Arrest Warrants filed against Lugovoi and Kovtun mean they can be arrested if they travel abroad.

Maria Zhakarova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Thursday that "we regret that a purely criminal case has been politicized and has darkened the general atmosphere of bilateral relations."

The ministry also said Moscow does not consider the conclusions of a British inquiry into the 2006 poisoning death of a former Russian spy to be impartial because it claims the result had been predetermined.

"Clearly the decision to suspend the coroner's inquest and begin 'public hearings' was politically motivated," Zhakarova added.

Marina Litvinenko, the victim's widow, welcomed the inquiry's “damning finding” and called for Britain to impose sanctions on Russia. In a statement read outside the Royal Courts of Justice, where the inquiry was held, she also called for economic sanctions and travel bans against the two suspects as well as Putin.

British Prime Minister David Cameron's office, however, signaled the government was unlikely to take strong measures, while noting the report “regrettably confirms what we and previous governments already believed to date,” The Guardian reported.

“We have to weigh carefully the need to take measures with the broader need to work with Russia on certain issues,” Cameron's office said through a spokesperson. “When you look at the threat from Daesh (the Islamic State), it is an example of where you put ... national security first.”

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