Dead from Covid: the spy blamed for poisoning Kremlin critic Litvinenko
A FORMER Russian spy suspected of poisoning Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London has died of Covid.
Dmitry Kovtun was alleged to have carried out the assassination by lacing Mr Litvinenko’s tea with radioactive polonium-210 in 2006.
Kovtun, 56, together with another KGB agent, Andrei Lugovoy, had met Mr Litvinenko in a London hotel after he became a British citizen.
Mr Litvinenko, a former KGB agent who later worked for MI6 and was an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died in hospital weeks after drinking the poisoned tea.
Kovtun’s death was first reported by Lugovoy, now a member of Russia’s parliament, who wrote on social media yesterday: ‘As a result of a serious illness associated with a coronavirus infection, my close and faithful friend suddenly died.’
Kovtun and Lugovoy were named by British police as suspects in the killing, but all bids to extradite them from Russia to face justice were refused. From his deathbed, Mr Litvinenko accused Putin of ordering his murder, a killing that led to international outrage.
British investigators found traces of polonium at sites across London
where the two suspects had been, including in offices, hotels, planes and the Arsenal football stadium in North London.
Tensions between Mr Litvinenko and Putin dated back to their only face-to-face meeting in 1998, when the Russian president was head of the FSB intelligence agency and
Mr Litvinenko was pushing for reforms of the service.
A judge at a British inquiry into the case concluded in 2016 that the murder was an operation of the FSB that was probably approved by its director at the time, Nikolai Patrushev, and by Putin himself.