Litvinenko widow marks anniversary of poison death with truth call

Nov 23, 2011, 14:28 GMT

London - The widow of former Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned in London five years ago, expressed the hope Wednesday that the truth about the mysterious affair would soon be revealed.

Marina Litvinenko marked the anniversary of her husband's death with a visit to his grave in London's famous Highgate cemetery, where German philosopher and economist Karl Marx is also buried.

Litvinenko, himself a former KGB agent, died on November 23, 2006, after months of a very public, slow and agonizing demise following his consumption of a cup of tea laced with the radioactive agent, polonium-210.

'My patience has run out,' said Marina Litvinenko at a private ceremony in the north London cemetery, where she also urged his Russian 'killers' to reveal the truth.

Russians Andrei Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun, also former KGB agents, have been named by British prosecutors as having been behind the killing, but Moscow has repeatedly rejected demands for their extradition.

Marina Litvinenko, 49, said she was 'confident' that a future full public inquest into her husband's death in Britain would confirm claims that the Russian state was involved in his death.

'I believe this inquest will bring the truth,' she said.

Litvinenko recalled that, following the 1963 assassination of US president John Kennedy, the Russian KGB had been keen to cooperate with the United States to prevent any suspicion falling on Moscow.

'So why, after five years, have they done nothing for Sasha?' she asked. 'If it's not their polonium, why are they not showing us?'

Litvinenko said she regretted that the case had led to a souring of relations between Russia and Britain.

'When we do eventually get the truth of what happened in London five years ago, it will actually help relations,' she said about the inquest, expected to take place next year.

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