 ™ |
| KGB | Putin's Assassination of Alexander Litvinenko A MAN WITH A CONSCIENCE FULFILLING CHRIST'S COMMAND 'LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR AS YOURSELF' |
FSB |
Litvinenko, in his book Blowing Up Russia, accuses the Kremlin of masterminding the Kashirskoye and Pechatniki apartment bombings in Moscow (which killed and wounded many) in order to blame Chechen terrorists and so whip up public support for a Russian military invasion of Chechnya. In addition, in the months before his death, Litvinenko had also been involved in a report that alleged links between an associate of Vladimir Putin, Viktor Ivanov, then a deputy head of the Kremlin administration, and the Russian Mafia clan Tambov-Malyshev, of which Vladimir Putin is the 'godfather'. |
16 October 2006
Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun meet Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko (44) at an office in Mayfair, London, and spray radioactive isotope polonium-210 into his teacup – but he fails to drink it.
Lugovoi and Kovtun fly back to Moscow, contaminating their seats on the plane with alpha radiation (from the polonium-210).
Less than a week after Litvinenko makes a speech blaming Vladimir Putin for the murder of a journalist, Lugovoi returns to London on a British Airways flight, leaving more traces of alpha radiation from the polonium-210 isotope he was transporting..
Lugovoi returns to London again, this time with family and friends to watch a soccer match. Kovtun joins him the next day, via Hamburg, Germany. Radioactive trails are later found both at Emirates Stadium in London and in Hamburg.
Lugovoi and Kovtun meet Litvinenko at the Millennium Hotel in Mayfair, London, where they spray polonium-210 radioactive isotope into a pot of green tea. This time, Litvinenko does drink some. He returns home and falls ill.
Litvinenko is admitted to hospital in London.
As Litvinenko shows symptoms of radiation poisoning by hair and weight loss, Scotland Yard's anti-terror unit begins investigating.
Litvinenko dies of poisoning from radioactive isotope polonium-210, which emits alpha radiation (not gamma, and is therefore much harder to trace).
Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko is buried in Highgate Cemetery, London, leaving his wife Marina and his son Anatoly.
Back home in Russia, Lugovoi, while being treated for radiation sickness, is interrogated by the Russian prosecutor general's office in the presence of British detectives.
Britain requests the extradition of Lugovoi to stand trial for the Litvinenko murder, but, in July, Russia officially refuses.
Lugovoi is elected to Russia's parliament, the Duma.
A public judicial inquiry into the murder of Litvinenko opens in Britain under Sir Robert Owen.
| See: Litvinenko Inquiry Website |
Vladimir Putin awards Lugovoi a medal for "services to the fatherland", as a 'patriot who eliminated a traitor'.
| See: |
| My most recent letter to International Criminal Court, 9 July 2016, for the prosecution of VV Putin for his murder |
The British judicial inquiry finds that Lugovoi and Kovtun poisoned Litvinenko and
that it was "probably approved by... President Putin" himself.
