Putin likely OK'd Alexander Litvinenko death, British inquiry says
British investigators say Russian President Vladimir Putin probably personally approved the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko, a Russian spy-turned-dissident who was exiled in Britain after criticizing Putin and describing him, among other things, as a pedophile. Retired High Court Judge Robert Owen, who conducted the inquiry, wrote that he was "sure" that two former Russian agents poisoned the 44-year-old at a London hotel with highly radioactive polonium-210. And Owen wrote that he was also sure that the two men who allegedly poisoned Litvinenko -- former KGB and FSB employee Andrei Lugovoi and former Russian army officer Dmitri Kovtun -- were acting on behalf of others, probably the Russian spy service, the FSB. Robert 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. Marina Litvinenko, Alexander’s widow, welcomed the report’s “damning finding” and called for the UK to impose sanctions on Russia, in a statement read outside the Royal Courts of Justice, where the inquiry took place. But she claimed she had been given indications that the UK would do nothing. Marina Litvinenko said outside the High Court on Thursday that she was "very pleased that the words my husband spoke on his deathbed when he accused Mr Putin have been proved by an English court." Marina also called on Prime Minister David Cameron to impose "targeted economic sanctions and travel bans" against individuals including Mr Putin. In a statement outside the High Court, Mrs Litvinenko said she wanted to see the immediate expulsion of all Russian intelligence operatives based at the London embassy. Litvinenko, who had become a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died after he was poisoned with polonium-210, an isotope that is deadly even if ingested in tiny quantities. He had fled from Russian to Britain in 2000 after breaking with Putin and his inner circle. Russia’s Foreign Ministry was quick to dismiss the British inquiry’s conclusion that Russian President Vladimir Putin "probably" approved the 2006 assassination operation. We regret that a purely criminal case has been politicized and has darkened the general atmosphere of our bilateral relations," spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Thursday
