Alexander Litvinenko
Former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned with polonium-210 in London. A British inquiry concluded Russian President Putin probably approved the operation. Two suspects were identified.
On November 1, 2006, former Russian FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko, who had defected to the UK and become a vocal critic of Putin, met two Russian contacts at the Millennium Hotel in London. He became violently ill that evening.
Litvinenko was poisoned with polonium-210, an extremely rare radioactive substance. It took doctors nearly three weeks to identify the poison. Litvinenko died on November 23 in University College Hospital.
On his deathbed, Litvinenko accused Vladimir Putin of ordering his murder. Investigations identified Andrei Lugovoy and Dmitri Kovtun, both former Russian intelligence officers, as the assassins.
A 2016 British public inquiry concluded that the operation was 'probably approved' by Putin and FSB director Nikolai Patrushev. Russia refused to extradite Lugovoy and Kovtun, both of whom deny involvement.
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