He then alleged Putin used his position as head of the FSB, Russian’s intelligence service, to destroy videos of him having sex with underage boys.
“It hardly needs saying that the allegations made by Mr. Litvinenko against President Putin in this article were of the most serious nature. Could they have had any connection with his death?”, Owen wrote.
“There was undoubtedly a personal dimension to the antagonism between Mr. Litvinenko on the one hand and President Putin on the other,” he continued. “Mr. Litvinenko made repeated highly personal attacks on President Putin culminating in the allegation of pedophillia in July 2006.”
Litvinenko fled to Britain in 2000 and became a vocal critic of Russia’s security service, even accusing Putin with being linked to organized crime. He had accused Putin on his deathbed of ordering his killing, but Thursday’s report is the first official statement linking the Russian president to the crime.
Moscow has strongly denied any involvement in the murder, and accused Britain on Thursday of conducting a politically motivated inquiry.
“There was one goal from the beginning: slander Russia and slander its officials,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zhakarova told reporters. She said the inquiry was neither public nor transparent, comparing it to a “shadow puppet theatre.”
Marina Litvinenko, the former agent’s widow, said Thursday during a press conference she was “very pleased that the words my husband spoke on his deathbed when he accused Mr. Putin have been proved by an English court.”
She called UK Prime Minister David Cameron to impose economic sanctions against Russia.
“It’s unthinkable that the prime minister would do nothing in the face of the damning findings,” Marina said.
