According to reports, one of the men who were accused of murdering Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy, has died from Covid-19 in Moscow.
Dmitri Kovtun was one of two men who a UK inquiry ruled had poisoned Litvinenko’s tea with a rare radioactive substance back in 2006.
Russian state-owned news agency Tass reported that Kovtun had contracted coronavirus and died in a Moscow hospital.
Kovtun, along with Andrei Lugovoi, was accused of being behind Litvinenko’s assassination 16 years ago at the Millennium Hotel in Mayfair.
Reports said Tass cited Lugovoi, now a member of Russia’s parliament, as saying that he was mourning the death of a “close and faithful friend”.
(Image: AFP/Getty Images)
In 2016, a British public inquiry found that Vladimir Putin’s death was due to the poisoning of tea with radioactive polonium 210. “probably”a Russian president’s approval.
Inquiry revealed that Litvinenko had been poisoned by two Russian men. They put radioactive substance in Litvinenko’s drink at the London central hotel. It caused him to die an agonising death.
The European Court of Human Rights also ruled last year, following a case brought by the deceased’s widow, Marina Litvinenko, that Russia was responsible for his killing.
(Image: PA)
Russia denied any involvement in the deaths and refused to comply international arrest warrants for Lugovoi and Kovtun.
Sir Robert’s Litvinenko inquiry said the use of the radioactive substance was a “strong indicator”There was no evidence of state involvement. It is likely that the men were acting under the direct supervision of the Russian security service, the FSB. Litvinenko used work for the FSB.
Possible motives included Litvinenko’s work for British intelligence agencies after fleeing Russia, his criticism of the FSB, and his association with other Russian dissidents.
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