Russia was behind killing of ex-KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko, European court finds

Litvinenko, a defector who had become a vocal critic of the Kremlin, died three weeks after drinking poisoned tea at a London hotel

Britain has long blamed the attack on Moscow, and the European Court of Human Rights agreed, saying ‘Litvinenko’s assassination was imputable to Russia’

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Alexander Litvinenko in his hospital bed after being poisoned in 2006. File photo: AP

Published: 6:53pm, 21 Sep 2021Updated: 7:53pm, 21 Sep 2021

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) found on Tuesday that Russia was responsible for the assassination of ex-KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko, who died an agonising death in 2006 after being poisoned in London with a rare radioactive substance.

Litvinenko, a defector who had become a vocal critic of the Kremlin, died three weeks after drinking green tea laced with polonium-210 at a plush London hotel.

Britain has long blamed the attack on Moscow, and the European court in Strasbourg, France, agreed, saying that “Mr Litvinenko’s assassination was imputable to Russia”, its statement said.

The image of Litvinenko, 43, lying on his bed at London’s University College Hospital, yellow, gaunt and with hair fallen out, was emblazoned across British and other Western newspapers.

From his deathbed, Litvinenko told detectives he believed President Vladimir Putin – a former KGB spy who went on to head the contemporary FSB before rising to become Russia’s leader – had directly ordered his killing.

The use of a rare radioactive isotope on the streets of London, apparently to settle scores, plunged Anglo-Russian relations and Western mistrust of the Kremlin to what was then a post-Cold War low.

Russian President Vladimir Putin. Photo: AP

Russia was behind killing of ex-KGB officer Alexander Litvinenko, European court finds

Litvinenko, a defector who had become a vocal critic of the Kremlin, died three weeks after drinking poisoned tea at a London hotel Britain has long blamed the attack on Moscow, and the European Court of Human Rights agreed, saying ‘Litvinenko’s assassination was imputable to Russia’

Litvinenko, a defector who had become a vocal critic of the Kremlin, died three weeks after drinking poisoned tea at a London hotel

Britain has long blamed the attack on Moscow, and the European Court of Human Rights agreed, saying ‘Litvinenko’s assassination was imputable to Russia’