Litvinenko inquiry names Vladimir Putin as 'probably' responsible for ordering murder - as it happened
Litvinenko's widow Marina calls on the British government to act immediately in reponse to Sir Robert Owen's finding that the Russian state ordered the 2006 killing
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails
Sign up to our free breaking news emails
Sign up to our free breaking news emails
- Vladimir Putin 'probably' personally approved the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko
- Sir Robert Owen concludes Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun carried out killing
- Assassination carried out as an 'FSB operation' signed off by its director Nikolai Patrushev
- Litvinenko's widow Marina calls for UK government action against Russia
- Russian foreign ministry says it will not accept 'politically-motivated' findings
- Lugovoi issues statement calling report 'absurd', is unlikely to face deportation
- Alexander Litvinenko was a KGB agent who fled to London in 2000
- He was granted asylum but murdered at a hotel in 2006
- Died in agony in hospital after his tea was laced with Polonium-210
- On his deathbed he accused Vladimir Putin of ordering his assassination
- Kremlin has always denied any involvement in killing
An inquiry is to release its report into the death of former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned with Polonium-210 while drinking tea at a London hotel.
The report will be made public at 10am, and comes almost 10 years after what was effectively a small nuclear attack on the streets of the UK in 2006.
It has already been with the Home Office for 48 hours, and government sources have briefed various newspapers that the Kremlin will be blamed to some extent.
The Russian president Vladimir Putin is also expected to be named in the report, though it is unclear precisely in what capacity.
The conclusion that agents of the Russian state were responsible for the dissident’s death comes at a time when the UK is working with Moscow to deal with Isis in Syria and amid tensions over Russian troops in Ukraine.
On Wednesday, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said that the UK was going to send more military personnel to Nato countries in eastern Europe because of the potential threat posed by “Russian aggression”.