Spy ‘probably’ killed in 2006 on Putin orders

David Cameron has promised tougher action against Russia after a public inquiry found that President Vladimir Putin probably ordered the murder of former spy Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.

Despite the inquiry’s conclusion, however, the prime minister acknowledged that Britain would continue to work with Moscow on a range of international issues.

"Do we at some level have to go on having some sort of relationship with them because we need a solution to the Syria crisis? Yes, we do, but we do it with clear eyes and a very cold heart," he said.

“What we’ve added today is further asset freezes, writing to the prosecuting authorities to see what more can be done.”

Mr Cameron was speaking after the publication of a report by Sir Robert Owen, the former high court judge who chaired the inquiry into Litvinenko's death.

Nuclear agent

Sir Robert said that Litvinenko, a former intelligence officer, was poisoned with a powerful nuclear agent called polonium-210, “probably” on the orders of the Russian president.

The judge said there was "no doubt" that Litvinenko was poisoned by Andrei Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun, two Russians he met at a London hotel bar before falling ill in November 2006.

"I have concluded that there is a strong probability that when Mr Lugovoy poisoned Mr Litvinenko, he did so under the direction of the FSB, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, " Sir Robert said.

"I have further concluded that the FSB operation to kill Litvinenko was probably approved by Mr Patrusheve, then head of the FSB, and also by President Putin."

A former intelligence officer with the FSB, Litvinenko became an outspoken critic of Putin and worked for British intelligence after he sought asylum in 2000. In a statement before his death, he accused Mr Putin of ordering his murder.

Home secretary Theresa May on Thursday announced a freeze on the UK assets of Mr Kovtun and Mr Lugovoy, who is now a Russian member of parliament.

The Russian ambassador was summoned to the foreign office, but shadow home secretary Andy Burnham called for tougher action in response to what he called an act of terrorism.

“I don’t believe a more disturbing report has ever been presented to this parliament,” Mr Burnham said. “This was an act of state-sanctioned terrorism, an attack on London, sanctioned at the very highest levels of the Russian government and putting thousands of Londoners at risk.

“Given that, I don’t believe the government’s response today went anywhere near far enough,” he said.

Absurd conclusion

In Moscow, Mr Lugovoy described the conclusion that he murdered Litvinenko as “absurd” and Kremlin spokesman

Dmitry Peskov

poured scorn on inquiry’s report.

“This can be seen as the product of the elegant sense of humour of the British, when a public and closed investigation rests on undisclosed information from unnamed intelligence services and the ample use of the words ‘possibly’ and ‘probably’,” he said.

Litvinenko’s widow Marina welcomed the report, which was tougher than many had expected. She called for sanctions to be imposed on Russia and a travel ban on Mr Putin.