Murdered Russian Spy Was Telling MI6 All About Putin’s BFF
The Independent has revealed a possible motive for the 2006 murder of Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko: it looks like he was tal;king to British intelligence about Vladimir Putin’s closest crony.
British security services handed Alexander Litvinenko a confidential government document that summarised private meetings held with a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, The Independent has learnt.
MI6 allegedly asked the late spy to provide “expert analysis” on a four-page confidential Foreign Office report that detailed a visit to London in 2000 by Sergei Ivanov – who is now the second most powerful figure in the Kremlin.
The diplomatic telegraph – known as a “DipTel” and circulated to British embassies around the world – outlined private talks between Mr Ivanov – at the time Russia’s top security adviser – and UK intelligence officials in Downing Street, the Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Defence.
Mr Litvinenko’s relationship with British intelligence has been cited as a possible motive for his murder, and the documents provide fresh evidence of potentially close links between MI6 and the former KGB agent and arch-critic of President Putin. Mr Litvinenko fled Russia for Britain in November 2000 and died in 2006.
