The Dmitry Kovtun, one of the two Russians accused by Britain of poisoning the former spy Aleksandr Litvinenko in London in 2006, died of COVID-19 in a Moscow hospital, the Russian news agency TASS reported today.
Litvinenko[/B] died weeks after drinking tea poisoned with the radioactive isotope, polonium-210, at the Millenium Hotel in central London, where he met Kovtun and Andrei Lugovoi, the other alleged suspect in the poisoning of the former spy.
British investigators have found traces of polonium in locations across London where the two Russian men were, including in offices, hotels, airplanes and Arsenal's football stadium.
Kovtun and Lugovoi have denied that they poisoned Litvinenko and Moscow has refused to extradite them for trial.
Litvinenko, a British citizen, was a former KGB officer who had become a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Shortly before he died, he accused Putin of ordering his assassination, but the Kremlin has consistently denied that he played any role in his poisoning.
A judge in a British inquiry into the case concluded in 2016 that the assassination was an operation by Russia's FSB spy agency that was likely approved by its then-director, Nikolai Patrushev, and by Putin himself.
According to TASS, Lugovoi, now a prominent member of the Russian parliament, said he was mourning the death of a "close and loyal friend."
Source: CNA
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