The British investigation into the death of Aleksandr Litvinenko, a former Russian intelligence officer and Kremlin critic, who died from radioactive poisoning in 2006, is "biased" and unjustified, Russia's UK ambassador Alexander Yakovenko told RT.
"Russia is not satisfied with the way the Litvinenko case was dealt with," Yakovenko said in an interview to RT, stressing that "the key problem is... that
it was not public and open to the press," so that Russia could not take part in the hearings.
"That is why we cannot accept the conclusions of that case. If it was public, we would be happy to participate [in the investigation], but, unfortunately, it did not happen," he added.
Yakovenko also emphasized that the results of the inquiry "are not justified," with the investigation itself being "very politicized" and "biased" as "
the coroner investigation was open to [Russia] but later, after [the crisis in Ukraine started], the British authorities decided to switch the process to a secret investigation..."
"In order to prove something,
you have to present the facts. As soon as the British side proves... their conclusions, we will be ready to consider [them]," the ambassador stressed adding that now he sees "no grounds for that," as the Russian side "did not even have a chance to study the documents [of the investigation]."
Comment: More on the case:
- Russian Sherlock Holmes: The case of Alexander Litvinenko - game-changing clues
- UK court rules against divulging Litvinenko materials
The idea that the FSB would assassinate someone in this manner is absurd:- Revisiting Litvinenko: What really happened?
Like every other major intelligence agency, if they'd really wanted to assassinate him, they have ways of doing it so that nothing would trace it back to them. For example, for decades CIA and Mossad have had the ability to murder someone and make it look natural or accidental. Using polonium is ridiculous, unless you WANT to draw attention...