LONDON, September 21. /TASS/. The European Court of Human Rights' verdict regarding the death of former FSB office Alexander Litvinenko in the United Kingdom is based on a totally politicized British investigation, a spokesman for the Russian embassy in London told TASS on Tuesday.
"Today's ECHR ruling in the Litvinenko case will be closely studied by the Russian side. At the same time, even a quick look at the verdict indicates that it was based on the results of Britain's public inquiry. Russia's evaluation of this non-transparent, uncompetitive procedure, politicized from beginning to end, is well-known," he said.
The ECHR on September 21 pronounced its verdict in the case, saying that Russia failed to conduct an effective investigation or bring to justice Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun, to whom the British investigators pointed to as Litvinenko's killers. The court refused to accept a request from Russia, which warned against relying on the conclusions of British investigators. The ECHR ruled that the findings matched the criteria of independence and transparency. The ECHR ruled that Russia must pay compensation of 100,000 euros in moral damages to Litvinenko's widow and pay the legal costs of 22,500 euros.
Alexander Litvinenko, who had been granted asylum in Britain, died in a London hospital on November 23, 2006. A forensic examination found that his death was due to poisoning with polonium, but the circumstances of his death have not been established to this day and remain a controversy. A report following the public inquiry into Litvinenko's death, released in London in January 2016, alleged Russia's complicity in his death and named Russian citizens Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun as the perpetrators. Moscow regards London's investigation of the Litvinenko case as politicized.