Nothing changed before Novichok death

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Nothing changed before Novichok ******

BBC

Marina Litvinenko’s husband ***** in 2006 after being poisoned by a radioactive substance

The widow of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko said “nothing” had changed between her husband’s ****** and the Novichok poisonings in Salisbury.

Marina Litvinenko’s husband ***** in 2006 after being poisoned in London with a cup of tea laced with Polonium 210.

Mr Litvinenko’s ************** was

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, a public inquiry in 2016 ruled.

Two years after that ruling, 44-year-old Dawn Sturgess ***** in Wiltshire after coming into contact with the same nerve agent in what she thought was a bottle of perfume, an incident Mrs Litvinenko said she “couldn’t believe”.

“By not strengthening protection against an *******, people who commit ******* like this feel relaxed, it means they might do this again,” Mrs Litvinenko said.

“When no-one is arrested or extradited, they feel like it’s easy to do.”

Ms Sturgess’ ****** in July 2018 came months after the attempted ******* of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, who both survived.

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Dawn Sturgess ***** after unknowingly spraying Novichok out of a perfume bottle

The cases of the Skripals and Ms Sturgess are “similar” to what happened to Mr Litvinenko in 2006, his widow said.

A year-long inquiry launched in 2015 to examine the circumstances of Mr Litvinenko’s ****** concluded that ****** was “probably” behind the ************** – although Russia denies any involvement.

Baroness Theresa May, who was prime minister from 2016 to 2019, previously said: “I think we

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to that at the time and given a clearer message to Russia.”

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Mr Litvinenko in the intensive care unit at University College Hospital in London, three days before his ******

Ms Litvinenko said Ms Sturgess was “an innocent victim”.

“No one targeted and tried to ***** her. It makes it even worse because [Alexander] was a dissident, very critical of ******, so his life was in danger even here [in the ***].

“But to ordinary British people who feel like they should be protected and then just **** one day because some foreign agents come to play their games here, I don’t think it makes them feel comfortable.

“When we finally had a public inquiry and more evidence… I thought it might open eyes, not just here in the ***, but across the world, that it can’t be business as usual for ******,” she added.

‘A safe place’

The Russian had sought asylum in Britain in 2000, after Mr Litvinenko raised concerns about their security.

Ms Litvinenko said her husband assured her: “We are on an island, we are in a kingdom, we are under protection of the Queen, we are in a safe place.”

“[The Russians] were not going to do something bad, but the people ruling Russia now have different rules,” she added.

Father-of-one Mr Litvinenko had previously worked in Russia as an officer with the Federal Security Service, the successor to the KGB.

However, he later became a fierce critic of the Kremlin, and secured work with the British intelligence agency MI6, as well as citizenship.

PA Media

Alexander Litvinenko’s grave in Highgate *********, London

It is alleged Mr Litvinenko was

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and had planned to fly to Spain with former agent Andrei Lugovoi – the main suspect over his *******.

On 1 November 2006, Mr Litvinenko met with Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun for tea at a hotel in London.

Mr Litvinenko unknowingly ingested the radioactive substance through his drink and quickly became ill.

His condition worsened over the course of three weeks, leading to hospitalisation, until his ****** on 23 November.

‘It happened again’

Ms Litvinenko was in Berlin on the day that the Skripals were

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in Salisbury in March 2018.

She immediately thought the circumstances were “strange”.

“I couldn’t believe it happened again,” Ms Litvinenko said.

“After our public inquiry, it was so obvious you have to take more care and not allow anyone to commit a similar ****** on your country.

“I believed it would be a good lesson for the state to protect its own citizens, but it didn’t happen.

“I know security since 2018 has become more serious for other people, but it’s still not enough.”

A Home Office spokesperson said their “deepest sympathies” remained with Ms Sturgess’ family.

Ms Litvinenko added that she felt let down by the *** government and believed her late husband would too.

Rex Features

Yulia (L) and Sergei Skripal (R) survived a nerve agent ******* in March 2018

After the Salisbury poisonings, Mr Skripal rejected the government’s offer of a change of name.

Ms Litvinenko said security services should have insisted he take the offer because of the risk.

“****** made a very strong comment that any ****** would be punished,” she said.

She stressed there was a responsibility to protect the wider public and not just Mr Skripal.

“It’s unbelievable what people just suffered because somebody decided to punish somebody in another country,” she said.

Ms Litvinenko said the Dawn Sturgess inquiry was unlikely to lead to “any special point of achievement”, but would provide her family with “the satisfaction that people will understand what happened to you”.

Caroline Sturgess, Dawn’s mother, previously told the ongoing inquiry that it was

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that nobody else had ***** in the Amesbury incident.

Ms Litvinenko said authorities needed to learn from this.

“You need to protect them, and take it more seriously,” she said.

“Every time when we talk about politics or anything, we have to remember humanity.

“It’s all we need to be remembered, and it might change something if politicians will think about people more in this way.”

The Russian government has always denied involvement in the Salisbury poisonings and the Russian embassy has been approached for a comment.

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#changed #Novichok #******

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