DISINFO: ECHR decision on Litvinenko's case feeds Russophobia
SUMMARY
The recent decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) which considers Russia as responsible for the death of Alexander Litvinenko is politically motivated and feeds Russophobia.
RESPONSE
This report is part of a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the poisoning of a Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) issued a decision with which it holds Russia accountable for his poisoning.
The court said there was a "strong presumption" that Litvinenko had been assassinated by individuals "acting as agents of the Russian state". It also added the Russian government "failed to provide any other satisfactory and convincing explanation of the events", nor did it carry out "an effective domestic investigation" aimed at identifying and punishing those responsible.
In May 2007, the UK's Crown Prosecution Service charged Andrey Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun with "the murder of Mr Litvinenko by deliberate poisoning". In 2016 a public inquiry in the UK established that Mr Litvinenko was killed under the direction of FSB with highly radioactive Polonium-2010. Litvinenko ingested the fatal dose of polonium 210 whilst drinking tea in the Pine Bar of the Millennium Hotel during the afternoon of 1 November 2006.
See here more disinformation cases on the Litvinenko poisoning.