Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko

The poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko was the November 2006 assassination of a former Russian FSB officer who had become a prominent Kremlin critic and British intelligence asset. Litvinenko died on November 23, 2006, after a three-week illness caused by ingesting polonium-210, a rare radioactive isotope that can only be produced in nuclear reactors under state control.

Litvinenko, who had fled Russia in 2000 and obtained political asylum in Britain, was investigating the death of journalist Anna Politkovskaya when he met with former Russian contacts at the Millennium Hotel in London on November 1, 2006. Within hours, he became violently ill with symptoms initially resembling poisoning by thallium or another conventional toxin. Only after his death was polonium-210 identified as the cause, detected through sophisticated forensic analysis.

A 2016 British public inquiry conducted by Sir Robert Owen concluded that Litvinenko was killed by Russian agents Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun, acting on orders from the FSB and with the "probable" approval of Vladimir Putin. The inquiry found that the assassination was motivated by Litvinenko's criticism of Putin, his work with British intelligence, and his investigation into alleged FSB involvement in the 1999 Moscow apartment bombings.

The case marked a new escalation in state-sponsored assassination methods, with the use of polonium-210 serving both as a nearly undetectable murder weapon and a clear message to other Russian dissidents. The radioactive trail left by the poison allowed investigators to track the suspects' movements through London, providing unprecedented forensic evidence of a state assassination operation. Russia has refused to extradite the suspects, and both Lugovoi and Kovtun deny involvement.