"In mid-October, about a month into Russian President Vladimir Putin's partial reserve recruitment campaign, there was a knock on the door of the apartment in Moscow, which is listed as my official residence," Anatoly Litvinenko, 28, wrote in the Observer today (Sunday).
Anatoly is the son of Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian defector who was murdered by polonium 210 poisoning in 2006 in London.
According to the son, the soldiers who came to recruit him for the war in Ukraine apparently did not know about his history with the Putin regime.
"Friends of the family who are currently staying in the apartment, opened the door and saw two officers from the Russian army who asked them if I was at home. The officers were informed about the fact that I have not lived there for more than twenty years," Litvinenko wrote, ahead of the release of a new British series from ITV starring the actor David Tennant as Litvinenko Sr.
The series is based on interviews with the Metropolitan Police who led the murder investigation, with Anatoli and his mother Maria.
Litvinenko was a Russian intelligence agent who worked for the KGB and PSB in 1988-1999.
In 1999 he was fired and moved to the United Kingdom, where he received political asylum in 2001 and citizenship in 2006. Litvinenko, who opposed the Putin regime, died in London as a result of poisoning with the radioactive substance polonium 210. In January 2016, a public commission of inquiry in the United Kingdom determined that Putin apparently approved the assassination of Litvinenko .
In September 2021, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia was responsible for the murder of Litvinenko, through two agents who poisoned him.
ordered the murder.
Vladimir Putin (Photo: Reuters, Sputnik/Mikhail Metzel)
Those identified as the assassins are Andrey Lugovoy, a former KGB security guard, and Dmitry Kovton, another Russian citizen. The two met with Litvinenko at a hotel, and apparently injected the poisonous substance into his teacup. The two, protected by the Russian authorities, deny any involvement in the assassination.
The tribunal also ordered Russia to pay his widow 100,000 euros in compensation and 22,500 euros in legal costs, although Moscow is not expected to comply with the ruling. Litvinenko died at the age of 43, three weeks after drinking the tea, in great agony in the hospital. He is pictured in a hospital bed , when his skin turned yellow and his hair bald, starred in the newspapers in Britain and Western countries. When he was on his deathbed, he told investigators that he believed that Putin, who also served in the KGB, had ordered his assassination.
The use of a rare radioactive substance on the streets of London led to a downturn in relations between Great Britain and Russia.
The former spy was seen as a traitor in Russia after he blamed the security services for the 1999 bombings of apartment complexes across Russia that killed more than 200 people.
The Kremlin accused the Chechen rebels of being responsible for the attacks, and as a result, the Second Chechen War began.
In addition, Litvinenko was close to other Russian dissidents and accused the Kremlin of collaborating with the mafia.
The investigation in Britain found that Moscow had received information according to which he had begun working with British intelligence.
Suspect of murder.
Andrey Lugovoy (Photo: Reuters)
Suspect of murder.
Dmitry Kovton (Photo: Reuters)
Litvinenko died at the age of 43, three weeks after drinking the tea, in great agony in the hospital.
His picture hospitalized in the hospital bed, with his skin turning yellow and his hair balding, starred in the newspapers in Britain and Western countries.
When he was on his deathbed, he told investigators that he believed that Putin, who also formerly served in the KGB, ordered his assassination. The use of a rare radioactive substance on the streets of London led to a downturn in relations between Britain and Russia.
The former spy was seen as a traitor to Russia, after he blamed the security services for the explosions apartment complexes across Russia in 1999, in which more than 200 people were killed. The Kremlin blamed Chechen rebels for the attacks, which led to the start of the Second Chechen War. In addition, Litvinenko was close to other Russian dissidents and the Kremlin blamed In cooperation with the mafia The investigation in Britain found that Moscow had received information according to which he had begun working with British intelligence.
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