The Russian state backed the murder in London of former KGB agent and Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko, British security sources quoted by the BBC said on Monday.
A senior security official, cited by BBC TV’s Newsnight, said there were “very strong indications it was a state action.”
Litvinenko, a fierce critic of the Kremlin under former Russian president Vladimir Putin, died after suffering radiation poisoning thought to have been ingested through a cup of tea.
The accusations came on the day British Prime Minister Gordon Brown met Russian President Dmitry Medvedev for the first time since Medvedev took office in May.
Their talks at the summit of G8 leaders in Japan were an attempt to ease tensions created since 2006 by the Litvinenko affair.
Litvinenko’s widow Marina welcomed Britain’s “principled stand” over the extradition of Lugovoi in a statement released following the meeting.
Moscow and London established cordial ties after Putin came to power in 2000. But they soured when Russia accused Britain of hosting the Kremlin’s political foes — exiled businessman Boris Berezovsky and Chechen rebel leader Akhmed Zakayev.
Relations between the two countries reached their lowest point since the Cold War after Russia refused to extradite to Britain former security guard Andrei Lugovoy, accused of poisoning Litvinenko in London almost two years ago.
The BBC said it had been told Russia’s security service, the FSB, operated under Putin with far more autonomy than organizations usually entrusted with foreign espionage operations.
“We very strongly believe the Litvinenko case to have some state involvement,” the source said.
Newsnight said the British Secret Service also believed it thwarted an attempt last year to kill Berezovsky.
That alleged attempt, the source said, showed “continued FSB willingness to consider operations against people in the West.”
A Russian spokesman said yesterday there was no evidence of a secret service role in the killing of
Litvinenko, rejecting the claim made in British media.
Russia’s own investigation “has made significant progress and has not produced evidence that any secret service was involved in the crime,” the spokesman said.
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