Key findings

Judge Robert Owen’s report into the killing of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko was published in Britain on Thursday. Here are some of the key findings:

RUSSIAN STATE RESPONSIBILITY • Owen finds that there is no evidence that either of the two main suspects had any personal reason to kill Litvinenko. • The judge notes that although he cannot be sure that the poison that killed Litvinenko came from Russia, it is clear that it had been manufactured in a nuclear reactor, suggesting that the suspects “were acting for a state body, rather than (say) a criminal organization.” • He concludes that there is a “strong probability” that Lugovoi and Kovtun poisoned Litvinenko under the direction of Russia’s FSB spy agency. • He further concludes that the FSB operation was “probably approved” by then-FSB chief Nikolai Patrushev and by President Vladimir Putin. • He dismisses claims previously made by Lugovoi that he was the victim of a British set-up.

POSSIBLE MOTIVES • Owen says that Litvinenko’s vocal criticisms of Putin and the FSB, his association with leading opponents of the Putin administration and his alleged work for British intelligence meant that “there were powerful motives for organizations and individuals within the Russian State to take action” against him — including killing him. • He says Litvinenko was seen as having betrayed the FSB, and that Litvinenko was so hated in Russia that Russian soldiers used images of his face for target practice. • He points out that there was “undoubtedly a personal dimension to the antagonism” between Litvinenko and Putin. The two men had met in 1998, when Putin was the newly appointed head of the FSB and when Litvinenko hoped he might implement reforms. “In the years that followed, Mr. Litvinenko made repeated highly personal attacks on President Putin, culminating in the allegation of pedophilia in July 2006,” Owen says.