Litvinenko murder ‘ordered by Putin’
VLADIMIr Putin personally ordered the murder of ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, the inquiry into his death heard yesterday.
The russian president was called a ‘morally deranged authoritarian’ who should be held responsible for the killing in London in 2006.
Ben emmerson QC, for Mr Litvinenko’s family, pointed to several direct links between the Kremlin and the death of the dissident, who was poisoned with radioactive polonium-210 at a London hotel in 2006.
Polonium is rare and nearly exclusively made in russia, which has a history of political assassinations, he said. Mr Litvinenko, 43, had also produced reports for western companies that linked Putin and his associates to criminal gangs, the hearing was told.
Putin was also described as an ‘increasingly isolated tin pot despot’ who had tried to ‘manipulate and intimidate’ the inquiry. From his deathbed, Mr Litvinenko himself had also accused the russian leader of ordering his killing.
Mr emmerson also said there was proof ‘beyond doubt’ of the
‘Nuclear terrorism on London streets’
involvement of prime suspects in the murder, Andrei Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun.
Tests of the sink in the bathroom of the London hotel Kovtun had used revealed quantities of polonium that could only be achieved by direct contact with the rare isotope.
Lugovoy also had contact with corrupt Kremlin figures and launched a political career as a russian parliamentarian after the murder, Mr emmerson said.
Speaking on the closing day of the inquiry, he said: ‘If the russian state is responsible, Putin is responsible. he personally ordered the liquidation of an enemy who was bent on exposing him and his cronies.’
Both men deny the charge and the Kremlin has rejected any involvement. Mr Litvinenko’s widow Marina, who pressured Britain into holding the inquiry, said yesterday: ‘My husband was killed by agents of the russian state in the first ever act of nuclear terrorism on the streets of London and this could not have happened without the knowledge and consent of Mr Putin.
The hearing is expected to report its findings before Christmas.