The widow of former Russian Federal Security Service secret service officer Alexander Litvinenko on Monday told an inquiry into his radiation poisoning death in 2006 that her husband had suspected Russian President Vladimir Putin of being involved in “criminal conduct.”
She also said that Litvinenko met with Putin, who was the head of the nation’s secret service at the time, to expose an alleged plot to kill dissident oligarch Boris Berezovsky that Litvinenko uncovered.
“Sasha [Alexander] said it was not a productive meeting at all and he did not believe there would be any action,” Marina Litvinenko said.
Berezovsky, 67, was found dead on the bathroom floor at his home in southern England in 2013 with a ligature around his neck.
A former KGB spy, Putin started out in post-Soviet politics as deputy mayor of St Petersburg in the early 1990s, before going on to head up the Federal Security Service.
“On his position of deputy mayor of St Petersburg, Sasha believed [Putin] was involved in some criminal conduct,” she said, without elaborating.
She also told the judge-led inquiry in London that Litvinenko had been working for a British foreign intelligence service at the time of his death, receiving a monthly retainer of ￡2,000 (US$3,000).
Marina Litvinenko said that her husband was not “employed” as an MI6 agent, but did “consult” for the British and Spanish intelligence services.
Asked by Robin Tam, the main lawyer in the inquiry, if Alexander Litvinenko could have revealed the identities of Russian agents in Britain, she replied that she did not know.
The inquiry hearings began last week and are expected to last another two months, with a report due to be published by the end of the year.
Inquiry chairman Robert Owen has already said that he expects the hearings to reveal prima facie evidence” of Russian state involvement.
Russia has rejected any role in Litvinenko’s killing.
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