Litvinenko widow takes justice campaign to US
The Russian government does not want the murder of dissident Alexander Litvinenko to be solved, his widow and son said today.
Marina and Walter Litvinenko said it was obvious the Kremlin did not want to help solve the crime and added that the Russian authorities have “much to hide”.
The pair made their comments in a letter to the Democratic and Republican leaders of the US House of Representatives, which will vote on a resolution “expressing the sense to Congress that the (death) raises significant concerns about the potential involvement of elements of the Russian government” today.
“For 15 months since the brutal murder of our husband and son we waited in vain for Russia to cooperate with the British investigation and to extradite the chief suspect,” they wrote.
“It is now obvious that the Russian government does not want this crime to be solved. This only reinforces suspicions that Russian authorities have much to hide and makes the security aspect of the case particularly relevant.”
The letter said that the adoption of the resolution “would serve both the causes of justice and security”.
“It would also provide much needed support to the British government in the face of the Russian pressure to abandon the legal pursuit of the case,” the pair wrote.
Relations between Britain and Russia have become increasingly tense since the Kremlin rejected a request to extradite chief suspect Andrei Lugovoy.
Mr Litvinenko, 43, died from radiation poisoning in a London hospital in November 2006 after swallowing a rare isotope.
In a deathbed statement, he accused President Vladimir Putin, who will stand down in May, of complicity in the extraordinary assassination plot.
