331
Marina Litvinenko holds a copy
of the 328-page report into her
husband’s death, in which former high
court judge Sir Robert Owen blamed
Russia’s President Putin for the murder.In Kovtun’s room, several floors
above the Pine Bar, police forensic
teams took apart the bathroom
sink and found a clump of debris
containing 390,000 becquerels
of polonium. Ingested, 10,000
becquerels of polonium is enough
to kill a man. After the meeting,
it seemed, Kovtun had returned to
his room and slipped the rest of the
poison down the sink, to dispose
of the murder weapon.
In spite of these findings,
Lugovoi and Kovtun denied any
responsibility for Litvinenko’s
murder, and held a press conference
in Moscow claiming they were
innocent. Kovtun never explained
the polonium found in his
bathroom. Following a two-month
investigation, Scotland Yard
detectives recommended that
Andrei Lugovoi be charged with
murder. Moscow officials, however,
declared that Lugovoi would not beASSASSINATIONS AND POLITICAL PLOTS
sent back to London because the
constitution prevented the
extradition of Russian citizens.Diplomatic consequences
For eight years, the transcripts of
Litvinenko’s interviews were kept
secret, marked restricted by
Scotland Yard. They were finally
released in 2015. In January 2016,
a public enquiry concluded thatThe objects that came into direct contact with polonium-210
President Putin probably approved,
if not directly ordered, the
assassination of Litvinenko.
The murder of Litvinenko, an
M16 contractor, on British soil,
clouded relations between London
and Moscow. In July 2007, these
tensions were made manifest
with the expulsion of four Russian
embassy officials from Britain.
Russia retaliated in kind by
expelling British diplomats from
its embassies.
The UK subsequently broke
off its links with Russian security
services. While evidence clearly
pointed to Kovtun and Lugovoi,
no one has ever been brought to
justice for Litvinenko’s murder. ■The teapot Litvinenko
used at the Pine Bar of
the Millennium Hotel
registered 100,000
becquerels.The table the trio sat at in
the bar had a reading of
20,000 becquerels.A chair facing away from
them at a nearby table
registered 20,000 becquerels.The plughole in
Kovtun’s hotel bathroom
sink recorded 390,000
becquerels, which
suggests that
polonium-210
had been poured down
the sink.326-331_Alex_Litvinenko.indd 331 02/12/2016 15:05