Alexander Litvinenko coroner will not consider Russian involvement in death [View all]

[dipsydoodle]

The coroner presiding over the inquest into the death of Alexander Litvinenko has said he is unable to consider whether Russia was involved or if the UK could have prevented the killing.

Sir Robert Owen ruled that the two issues should be withdrawn from the scope of the inquest after the government mounted a successful legal bid to keep documents that might be relevant secret.

Litvinenko, 43, a spy who became a Russian dissident and arch-critic of Vladimir Putin, died of poisoning by radioactive polonium-210 in 2006 after drinking tea during a meeting with former security colleagues at the Millennium hotel in London.

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His relationship with British intelligence has been cited as a possible motive for his murder.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/19/alexander-litvinenko-coroner-russian-involvement-death-polonium