London
British prosecutors said this week that they have enough evidence to charge former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoy in the radiation poisoning of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko. Russian officials said they would “study” the indictment, but Russian law does not provide for extradition. Litvinenko, 43, an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, met with Lugovoy the day he got sick in London last fall, and he died three weeks later. Lugovoy, who left a trail of polonium radiation on his way back to Russia, denies killing Litvinenko. Almost all of the world’s polonium is contained in a Russian government lab. “Every reasonable person knows this was a state–sponsored job,” said Alex Goldfarb, a member of the entourage of exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky, as was Litvinenko.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
How the Nobel Peace Prize is chosenThe Explainer This year's prize has gone to survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings
-
Quiz of The Week: 5 - 11 OctoberHave you been paying attention to The Week's news?
-
'Picking up the pieces'Today's Newspapers A roundup of the headlines from the US front pages
