The long-awaited inquiry into the killing of Alexander Litvinenko has found that the murder of former Russian spy in 2006 in the UK was "probably" approved by President Vladimir Putin.
The long-awaited inquiry into the killing of Alexander Litvinenko has found that the murder of former Russian spy in 2006 in the UK was "probably" approved by President Vladimir Putin.
It was founded that two Russian men - Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun - intentionally poisoned Litvinenko by putting the radioactive substance polonium-210 into his drink.
"Sir Robert Owen, the public inquiry chairman, said he was "sure" Mr Litvinenko's murder had been carried out by the two men and that they were probably acting under the direction of Moscow's FSB intelligence service, and approved by the organisation's chief, Nikolai Patrushev, as well as the Russian president", informs BBC.
Public inquiry came to the conclusion that Putin is likely to have signed off the poisoning of Litvinenko due to personal "antagonism" between the pair. Home Secretary Theresa May added the murder was a "blatant and unacceptable" breach of international law.
"Sir Robert Owen, the inquiry chair, said that taken as a whole the open evidence that had been heard in court amounted to a “strong circumstantial case” that the Russian state was behind the assassination", The Guardian reports.
Alexander's widow Marina Litvinenko welcomed the report and appealed the UK to impose sanctions on Russia, in a statement read outside the Royal Courts of Justice, where the inquiry took place. But she said she had been told that the UK would do nothing.
