David Cameron insisted Britain was “toughening” up its response to Russian Federation after a public inquiry implicated Vladimir Putin in the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko but conceded the United Kingdom must continue to have “some sort” of relationship with Moscow.
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Speaking in Davos, Mr Cameron described the state-sponsored murder as “absolutely appalling” but said the inquiry report confirms what “we have always believed” had happened.
The judge said there was “no doubt” that Litvinenko was poisoned by Andrei Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun, two Russians he met at a London hotel bar before falling ill in November 2006.
While he lay dying in a London hospital bed, Litvinenko had pointedly told Scotland Yard that the Russian President had given the orders for his killing. A spokeswoman for the ministry told the Post, “We regret that the strictly criminal case has been politicized and has darkened the general atmosphere of bilateral relations”. But the radioactive trail left by the substance was traced across London, while three British Airways aircraft that had flown a number of routes, including London to Moscow, were reported to be contaminated with an unnamed radioactive substance.
Using polonium-210 was “at minimum a powerful indication of state participation” as it had to be produced in a nuclear reactor, the report said.
Owen also concluded the two men had unsuccessfully tried to kill Litvinenko two weeks earlier at a meeting at a London security firm, and said it was “entirely possible” Lugovoy was planning to target him back in 2004.
Britain’s government announced the inquiry in July 2014, just days after the downing of a Malaysian passenger jet over eastern Ukraine a tragedy blamed on Russia’s involvement in the conflict in the region in what was seen as a way of punishing Russian Federation. Litvinenko was a KGB officer who fled to the U.K.in 2000, after exposing corruption in Moscow’s security services.
Judge 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 Millennium Hotel.
The report also names Russian politicians Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun as those who arranged the poisoning.
Marina Litvinenko, widow of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, places her arm around her son Anatoly during a press conference in London, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2016.
The inquiry into the 2006 killing in London concluded that President Vladimir Putin probably approved a Russian intelligence operation to murder ex-KGB agent Litvinenko.
– Interpol has issued notices calling for their arrest, although Russian Federation refuses to extradite them.
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Mr Litvinenko’s work for British intelligence, criticism of the FSB and Mr Putin, and his association with other dissidents such as Boris Berezovsky were pointed to by Sir Robert as likely motives.
