In a development that reads like a Cold War thriller, Moscow has dropped a diplomatic bombshell by formally admitting that Andrey Lugovoy—the man Britain accuses of murdering Alexander Litvinenko—was operating as a Russian state agent.
The Poisoned Tea That Shook the World
The extraordinary admission emerged during a European Court of Human Rights case examining the 2006 killing that turned a London hotel into a radioactive crime scene. Former KGB officer Litvinenko suffered an agonising death after consuming green tea laced with polonium-210, a rare radioactive substance only produced in nuclear reactors.
British investigators had long maintained that Lugovoy and his associate Dmitry Kovtun carried out the assassination on Russian state orders. The recent court documents reveal Moscow's stunning justification: since Lugovoy was a member of the Russian parliament at the time of the ECHR case, he qualified as a "state agent" under Russian law.
From Parliament to Poison Plot
Lugovoy's transformation from suspected assassin to protected politician has infuriated British authorities. After being named as the prime suspect in one of London's most notorious murders, he returned to Russia and was elected to the Duma, granting him immunity from prosecution.
"This represents one of the most blatant acts of state-sponsored murder on British soil in living memory," said a former MI6 officer familiar with the case. "The Kremlin isn't even bothering to deny their involvement anymore—they're hiding behind parliamentary immunity."
A Diplomatic Standoff Escalates
The Litvinenko case has poisoned UK-Russia relations for nearly two decades:
- Britain expelled Russian diplomats in 2007 after Moscow refused to extradite Lugovoy
- A UK public inquiry concluded in 2016 that the assassination was "probably approved" by Vladimir Putin
- Russia has consistently denied involvement while celebrating Lugovoy as a national hero
The latest admission represents a significant escalation in the diplomatic war of words, coming at a time when relations between London and Moscow are already at their lowest point since the Cold War due to ongoing conflicts and other poisoning incidents.
As one Foreign Office insider noted: "They're not even pretending anymore. This is how modern state-sponsored assassination works—carry it out in broad daylight, then promote the perpetrator so they can never face justice."
