Cameron: Report Confirms UK's Belief Litvinenko's Death 'State Sponsored'

Sputnik News

19:40 21.01.2016(updated 19:44 21.01.2016)

UK Prime Minister David Cameron said that Thursday's report on the death of ex-FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko confirms both the previous and current UK governments' belief that the murder was state sponsored.

LONDON (Sputnik) – Earlier in the day, the British inquiry blamed Litvinenko's death on Russian authorities but could not conclude that the polonium-210 used to poison the former agent had come from Russia. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the UK inquiry was politicized.

'What happened was absolutely appalling and this report confirms what we've always believed, and what the last Labour government believed at the time of this dreadful murder, which is it was state sponsored action,' Cameron told ITV.

Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the UK report on Litvinenko's death is based on assumptions, which is unacceptable in Russian legal practice.

'This shocking even was reacted to years ago when it happened and we're toughening our action again today,' the minister said.

Alexander Litvinenko fled from Russia to the United Kingdom in 2000. He died in 2006, three weeks after drinking tea with his former colleagues Dmitry Kovtun and Andrei Lugovoy in central London.

Following his death, the UK authorities claimed that Litvinenko's former colleagues had poisoned him with the radioactive isotope polonium-210. A public inquiry into Litvinenko's death was formally established by the UK government in July 2014.

Earlier, Lugovoy said that he had passed a polygraph test conducted by British experts, that proved he was not guilty of murdering Litvinenko.

© Sputnik