European court: Russia responsible for Litvinenko killing

A former agent for the KGB spy agency and its post-Soviet successor agency FSB, Alexander Litvinenko defected from Russia in 2000 and fled to London.

The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday backed the conclusion of a British inquiry that Russia was responsible for the killing of , a former Russian spy who died in London in 2006 after drinking tea laced with a radioactive material.

A former agent for the KGB spy agency and its post-Soviet successor agency FSB, Litvinenko defected from Russia in 2000 and fled to London. While in Britain, Litvinenko became involved in exposing corruption and links to organized crime in the Russian intelligence service.

drinking tea with two Russian men at a London hotel, and spent three weeks in the hospital before he died. His tea He fell violently ill on Nov. 1, 2006, after was found to have been laced with radioactive polonium-210.