Britain had more motivation to kill Aleksandr Litvinenko than Russia, brother claims
The
grave of murdered ex-KGB agent Aleksandr Litvinenko is seen at
Highgate Cemetery in London, Britain, January 21, 2016. © Toby
Melville / Reuters
RT,
22
January, 2016
The
brother of Aleksandr Litvinenko says the UK government had more
motivation to kill him than Russia did, despite a British public
inquiry which concluded that President Putin “probably” approved
the assassination.
Maksim
Litvinenko, Aleksandr's younger brother who lives in Rimini, Italy,
responded to the Thursday report by saying it was “ridiculous” to
blame the Kremlin for the murder of his brother, stating that he
believes British security services had more of a motive to carry out
the assassination.
"My
father and I are sure that the Russian authorities are not involved.
It's all a set-up to put pressure on the Russian
government,” Litvinenko
told the Mirror, adding that such reasoning is the only explanation
as to why the inquiry was launched 10 years after his brother's
death.
He
called the British report a “smear” on
Putin, and stressed that rumors claiming his brother was an enemy of
the state are false. He added that Aleksandr had planned to return to
Russia, and had even told friends about the move.
RT
‘Probable involvement’ of Putin, Russian officials in #Litvinenko death - UK inquiry http://on.rt.com/72cz
Litvinenko
went on to downplay his brother’s alleged role as a spy, working
for either Russia or MI6, adding that the Western media is to blame
for such characterization.
"The
Russians had no reason to want Alexander dead,” he
said. “My
brother was not a spy, he was more like a policeman...he was in the
FSB [Russian Federal Security Service] but he worked against
organized crime, murders, arms trafficking, stuff like that.”
Litvinenko
was murdered in London in 2006, when assassins allegedly slipped
radioactive polonium 21 into his cup of tea at a hotel. But his
brother Maksim cast doubt on whether that was actually the poison
used, saying he believes it could have been planted to frame the
Russians.
"I
believe he could have been killed by another poison, maybe thallium,
which killed him slowly, and the polonium was planted afterwards,” he
said. He added that requests to have his brother's body exhumed, in
order to verify the presence of polonium, have been ignored by
Britain.
"Now
after 10 years any trace [of polonium] would have disappeared anyway,
so we will never know,” he
said, adding that British authorities had not collaborated with
Russian investigators on the case.
“This
case became a big PR campaign against the Russian government and its
president in particular,” Maksim
Litvinenko told RT in an interview in 2014. “The
West is pressuring Russia very hard now. The MH-17 crash, Crimea, the
war in Ukraine, sanctions against Moscow and now this inquiry – I'm
not buying that this is a coincidence.”
When asked why Aleksandr Litvinenko's widow Marina continues to maintain that the Kremlin is responsible for the murder, he said: “She lives in London, to survive she has to play the game and take this point of view. She can't say anything else."
UK Litvinenko death inquiry ‘biased,’ ‘very politicized’ – Russian ambassador to RT http://on.rt.com/72fi
Back in 2012, Litvinenko’s father backtracked on his claims that Vladimir Putin was responsible for his son's death, and asked the Russian president for forgiveness. Walter Litvinenko told RT that his anger had made him say what the Western media wanted to hear.
Meanwhile,
the Russian Foreign Ministry has also dismissed the British report,
blaming London for politicizing the “purely
criminal” case
of Litvinenko's death.
Russia’s
UK ambassador, Alexander Yakovenko, told RT that the inquiry's
conclusion was “not
justified,” and
that the investigation was “very
politicized” and “biased.”
“In
order to prove something, you have to present the facts. As soon as
the British side proves…their conclusions, we will be ready to
consider [them],” the
ambassador said, adding that the Russian side “did
not even have a chance to study the documents [of the
investigation].”
From the British tabloid press. A 'bizarre' outburst
In
a bizarre outburst the younger brother of murdered agent Litvinenko
says Russia is not to blame but the UK could be
The
younger sibling of murdered spy Alexander Litvinenko says his brother
was not killed by Russian spies and instead blames UK security
services that wanted him dead.
And
Maxim Litvinenko has rejected the findings of the inquiry into his
brother's death, saying that to blame
the Kremlin is
'ridiculous.'
The
inquiry found that President Putin 'probably' authorised the murder
by Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun, who were under the direction of
Moscow's FSB
intelligence service ,
when they poisoned the 43-year-old with radioactive polonium 210 at
London's Millennium Hotel.
But
Maxim Litvinenko, Alexander's younger brother, claimed the report was
an obvious attempt to 'put pressure on Russia' and that British
secret services had more reason to want Litvinenko
dead than
Putin.
Valter
Litvinenko (right) now realizes he was completely duped by the
British government and the Russian mafia
The
father of late Russian security officer Aleksandr Litvinenko says he
pursued a smear campaign against the Russian government out of grief,
but changed his mind after Aleksandr's widow revealed his son had
been working for British intelligence.
After
his son died in London from radioactive polonium poisoning in
November 2006, Walter Litvinenko was among those who accused Russia
of assassinating Aleksandr.
But
he changed his attitude after his son's widow Marina revealed that he
had been working for British intelligence.
"If
I knew back then that my son worked for the MI6, I would not
speculate about his death. It would be none of my business. Although
I am not 100 per cent sure he did work for them," he said in an
interview with RT.
He
added that if it was true and Aleksandr, once a security officer with
the Russian special service FSB, had defected to British
intelligence, the Russians may have had a right to kill him as a
traitor.
"He
might as well have been killed by Russian secret services. They had a
right to do it because traitors are to be killed," he said.
"Back then I was convinced he was not a traitor but I am not so
sure now, so I won't draw any conclusions."
He
calls his son a victim of a grand spy game. But he doubts that Andrey
Lugovoy, who British police have named their chief suspect, had a
hand in his death or acted as a government agent.
"The
FSB wouldn't send some dumbhead to spill polonium on himself, to
leave traces all over my son. It appears that someone left traces of
polonium on Lugovoy intentionally. Polonium traces were found at the
stadium, on the road and even on a plane. It's strange to think that
Lugovoy would be such an idiot."
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