The widow of Alexander Litvinenko has criticised the British government for failing to take meaningful action after January’s public inquiry report that said Vladimir Putin had “probably approved” the Russian dissident’s radioactive murder.

Speaking on the 10th anniversary of Litvinenko’s death, on 23 November 2006, Marina Litvinenko said she had been waiting to hear what further steps the UK might take. But Theresa May had “gone quiet”, she said. “Why is the government so silent?” she asked.

Marina Litvinenko met May, then home secretary, after the publication of a devastating report by Sir Robert Owen, a retired judge. After listening to months of evidence, some of it secret, Owen concluded that Russia’s FSB spy agency had carried out the killing at the behest of the Kremlin.

He found that two Russians – Dmitry Kovtun and Andrei Lugovoi – had put polonium in Litvinenko’s green tea during a meeting at the Millennium hotel in London. Putin and his then spy chief Nikolai Patrushev had “probably” authorised the assassination, Owen concluded.

During the meeting with May, Litvinenko called for personal sanctions to be imposed on Russian officials who helped organise the complex polonium plot. She also urged Britain to expel FSB agents working at the Russian embassy in London and undercover.



Speaking to the Guardian, Litvinenko said May agreed to consider her requests. The Home Office, however, hadn’t been in touch since March. Its silence raised fears that the government was wary of taking action against Moscow, possibly fearing a punitive response.

“The silence makes me think there is a deal [between the UK and Russia]. If you don’t know what’s happening you start to think the worse,” she said.

She added: “Theresa May knows exactly what happened to my husband. Meeting her gave me hope. Now I’m a little bit disappointed. It’s not just a question of justice for Sasha [Litvinenko]. It’s about sending a message to prevent this from happening again.”

As home secretary, May refused to hold a public inquiry into the murder, citing cost and the damage it might do to “international relations”. Marina Litvinenko successfully challenged the decision in the high court.

Marina Litvinenko holds a copy of the inquiry report inquiry into the death of her husband. Photograph: Carl Court/Getty Images

Last year’s public inquiry revealed the sometimes inept behaviour of Litvinenko’s killers, who threw polonium down the u-bend of their hotel bathrooms, and left a radioactive trail across London. Russian state media have shut down discussion of the case, Marina Litvinenko said.

She is now writing a memoir about her life. In 2000, she fled with her husband, a disillusioned FSB agent, and their son Anatoly and sought political asylum in the UK. She has not been back to Russia since.

She said of the book: “It’s the story of our love, our hopes, our dreams; how they were brutally crushed and who I became.”

Litvinenko described her husband as an “extraordinary man”, who was prepared to speak out against the FSB, the main successor agency to the KGB. “It has taken 10 long years for the truth to be established and for Sasha’s dying words that President Putin was responsible for his death to be proved true.”



She added: “What action world leaders will take against the ever-vengeful Russian state in these dramatic times remains to be seen. I hope and pray that my struggle has not been in vain.”

Litvinenko visited her husband’s grave on Monday and will return on Wednesday, the anniversary of his death in the intensive care ward of University College hospital. The grave is in a private part of Highgate cemetery in north London only accessible to the public on a guided tour. She said: “Sometimes I can find flowers there. I don’t know who has put them there.”

A dinner in remembrance of Alexander Litvinenko will be held on Friday, attended by about 50 friends and supporters, some of whom gave evidence to the public inquiry.