# Alexander Litvinenko Former [[FSB]] officer who publicly accused his superiors of ordering murders, fled to Britain, worked with [[MI6]], and was poisoned in London with radioactive polonium-210 in 2006. A British public inquiry concluded that his killing "was probably approved" by [[Nikolai Patrushev]] and by **President Putin** — the first time a Western judicial process named Putin personally. His case is the template the [[Skripal Poisoning]] repeated twelve years later. ## Timeline | Date | Event | |---|---| | Nov 17, 1998 | With fellow FSB officers, holds a Moscow press conference accusing commanders of ordering kidnappings and killings, including a plot against the oligarch Boris Berezovsky | | 1999 | Arrested, acquitted, rearrested | | 2000 | Flees to Britain; granted asylum in 2001, British citizenship in October 2006 | | 2002 | *Blowing Up Russia* accuses the FSB of staging the 1999 apartment bombings that preceded the second Chechen war | | Nov 1, 2006 | Drinks polonium-laced tea at the Millennium Hotel in Mayfair with Andrey Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun | | Nov 23, 2006 | Dies at University College Hospital; his deathbed statement blames Putin | | 2007 | Russia refuses to extradite Lugovoy, who wins a seat in the State Duma in December, gaining immunity | | Jan 21, 2016 | Sir Robert Owen's public inquiry finds the FSB operation "was probably approved by Mr Patrushev and also by President Putin," and that he is "sure" Lugovoy and Kovtun carried it out | | Jan 2017 | U.S. sanctions Lugovoy and Kovtun under the [[Magnitsky Act]] | | Sept 21, 2021 | European Court of Human Rights (*Carter v. Russia*) finds Russia responsible "beyond reasonable doubt"; widow Marina Litvinenko awarded €100,000 | | June 2022 | Russian state media report Kovtun's death from COVID-19 | > [!note] The finding's exact words > "Probably approved" is the inquiry's standard — a judicial finding on the balance of evidence, not a criminal conviction. Lugovoy has never been tried; he went on to serve in the Duma. ## Why it matters here Litvinenko's murder established the pattern: an FSB or GRU operation on NATO soil, a weapon traceable to a state program, a suspect rewarded with office, and a Kremlin denial that costs almost nothing. See [[Skripal Poisoning]], [[Chekism]] and [[Mafia State]]. ## See Also - [[Skripal Poisoning]] · [[Novichok]] - [[FSB]] · [[Nikolai Patrushev]] · [[Vladimir Putin]] - [[Magnitsky Act]] · [[Chekism]] · [[Mafia State]]