VLADIMIR Putin has been branded an “unreconstructed KGB thug and gangster” and Russia a “rogue state” after a public inquiry concluded that the Russian President in all probability approved the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko, the former spy, who was murdered in London in 2006.

Theresa May, in responding to the report from retired judge Sir Robert Owen, described the murder through the use of radioactive Polonium-210 as “a deeply shocking event” and told MPs the UK Government would continue to seek justice for Mr Litvinenko’s family by bringing his alleged killers – Andrei Lugovoy and Dmiriti Kovtun – to trial.

The Home Secretary made clear that David Cameron would be personally raising this matter with Mr Putin “at the next available opportunity”.

In a 300-page report, Sir Robert said Lugovoi and Kovtun were probably acting under the direction of Moscow's FSB intelligence service when they poisoned the 43-year-old with radioactive polonium 210 at the Millennium Hotel in Mayfair.

Singling out then-FSB chief Nikolai Patrushev alongside Mr Putin, Sir Robert wrote: "Taking full account of all the evidence and analysis available to me, I find the FSB operation to kill Litvinenko was probably approved by Mr Patrushev and also by President Putin."

In a Commons statement, Mrs May told MPs the Government was taking the finding of Sir Robert’s report extremely seriously. “The conclusion that the Russian state was probably involved in the murder of Mr Litvinenko is deeply disturbing.

The Herald:

 Sir Robert Owen

“It goes without saying this was a blatant and unacceptable breach of the most fundamental tenets of international law and of civilised behaviour.”

However, the Secretary of State admitted the findings did not come as a surprise given successive governments had viewed Mr Litvinenko’s death as state-sponsored.

She told MPs that:

  • Interpol notices and European arrest warrants were in place so that Lugovoy and Kovtun could be arrested if they travelled abroad
  • The Treasury had instigated asset freezes against them
  • The Director of Public Prosecutions had been asked to consider further measures in light of Russia’s refusal to extradite Lugovoy
  • Senior representations were being made to the Russian government in Moscow
  • The Russian ambassador was being called in to express the UK’s “profound displeasure” at Moscow’s failure to co-operate.

The Herald:

Alexander Litvinenko (fifth from left) in the army before he joined the KGB.

But some opposition MPs suggested the Kremlin would treat the Government’s response as nothing more than a “slap on the wrist”.

Ian Austin, the Midlands Labour MP said: “Well, they’ll be quaking in their boots in the Kremlin today, won’t they? Putin is an unreconstructed KGB thug and gangster, who murders his opponents in Russia and, as we know, on the streets of London and nothing announced today is going to make the blindest bit of difference.”

His Labour colleague Ben Bradshaw, the former Culture Secretary, appeared equally incensed, saying: “Is this not proof, if any further evidence were needed, that what we are dealing with in Putin’s Russia is a rogue state.”

The Herald:

The grave of Alexander Litvinenko in Highgate Cemetery.

He argued that the British public would be “aghast” that only today the two accused had had their assets frozen by the Treasury. “Doesn’t this point to complete complacency on behalf of this government? When is the Government going to take meaningful action against the dirty Russian money and property here in London that sustains the Putin kelptocracy?”

Andy Burnham, Mrs May’s Labour shadow, said Mr Litvinenko’s murder was an “unparalled act of state-sponsored terrorism that must meet with a commensurate response”.

While warning against a rush to judgement, the Labour frontbencher warned the Government against “pulling its punches” because of wider diplomatic considerations and questioned whether the extra measures announced by the Government went anyway near enough to provide an adequate response.

“Indeed, it could send a dangerous signal to Russia that our response is too weak,” he declared, calling for a wholesale review of Britain’s relationship with Russia and that consideration should be given to expelling all Russian FSB officers from the UK immediately.

Mr Burnham also suggested that more thought had to be given on whether or not it was appropriate that Russia should still stage the 2018 World Cup.

Stuart McDonald for the SNP denounced the “cowardly and awful murder”, which had been made  doubly shocking because of the apparent involvement of the Russian state.

The Nationalists’ spokesman on border controls expressed concern about how the killers of Mr Litvinenko had been able to acquire such significant quantities of radioactive material and then use it as a deadly weapon in the UK capital.

The Herald:

Mr Litvinenko's widow Marina  

His SNP colleague Peter Grant stressed that in light of the report the UK had to “regard the Russian state as an organisation actively involved in commissioning, funding, supporting and directing acts of terrorism against UK citizens within the United Kingdom”.

Tom Brake for the Liberal Democrats suggested President Putin himself should be banned from Britain, saying his heart would “not miss a beat” at the extra measures announced by the Government.

He called on Mrs May to “ban any other Russian, however senior, implicated in the murder from travelling to the UK and freeze their assets,” adding: “An assault on our sovereignty which saw a British citizen murdered on British soil in a nuclear attack requires nothing less.”

A number of MPs called for a US-style Magnitsky Act – which enables America to withhold visas and freeze financial assets of Russian officials thought to have been involved with human rights violations – to be introduced in Britain.

But Mrs May insisted that the introduction of such a law in the UK would not bring Mr Litvinenko’s murderers to justice and, in any case, the Government already had powers to ban people from entering the UK and to freeze their assets.

Elsewhere, Ben Emmerson QC, acting for Mr Litvineko’s family, said a failure by the Prime Minister  to take significant action over Russian "nuclear terrorism" on the streets of London would be "craven" and an "abdication of responsibility".

Revealing that the Government had been sent a potential list of individuals the family believed should be targeted for sanctions, Mr Emmerson said that, aside from Mr Litvinenko's "horrific" poisoning with polonium, 100 civilians had been exposed to radiation.

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Flanked by Mr Litvinenko's widow, Marina (above), and son, Anatole, he told a press conference: "The responsibility now that lies on Government is to act in a way that shows determination and the requisite degree of courage."

He added: "It would be craven for the Government, for the Prime Minister, to do nothing in response,” he declared, adding: "It would be an abdication of his responsibility to do the thing which, after all, is the first function of a state, which is to keep its people safe."

In Russia, Lugovoi dismissed the claims against him as "absurd", telling the Interfax news agency:  "As we expected, there was no sensation. The results of the investigation that were announced today once again confirm London's anti-Russian position and the blinkered view and unwillingness of the British to establish the true cause of Litvinenko's death."

Russia's Foreign Ministry said the inquiry was not impartial and claimed the conclusions had been pre-determined.

Its spokeswoman Maria Zhakarova said: "We regret that a purely criminal case has been politicised and has darkened the general atmosphere of bilateral relations."

She added that "clearly the decision to suspend the coroner's inquest and begin 'public hearings' was politically motivated".