(21 Jan 2016) RESTRICTION SUMMARY: AP CLIENTS ONLY
++CLIENTS PLEASE NOTE THIS STORY PLAYED OUT PREVIOUSLY WITH THE INCORRECT SLUG 'RUSSIA LIVINENKO 10'. THE CORRECT SLUG IS 'UK LITVINENKO 10'++
AP TELEVISION - AP CLIENTS ONLY
London - 21 January 2016
1. Wide of news conference
2. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Marina Litvinenko, widow of poisoned former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko:
"I want to say that this is a very important day for all of us because first of all it was not believed in Russia at all that we would achieve any results and it was hard even here in England to believe that we would ever get any final results from this. I think that is very important that it is seen in Russia that there is a court and that if one appeals to this court one can get a result, this has been very important. Secondly, it is important that people who have committed a crime on another country's territory can never hide behind the defence of their country only because the constitution does not allow extradiiton, because those who commit crimes must be punished."
3. Cutaway of news conference
4. SOUNDBITE: (English) Alexander Goldfarb, friend of Litvinenko family who gave evidence to the Inquiry:
"Well this report should tell you in the West what Sasha (Alexander) Litvinenko was trying to tell while he was alive, that you are dealing here with a murderous dictatorship, which is basically anti-Western and it took ten years to get his message through. So the important take-home lesson, I would say, is that in Mr (Vladimir) Putin you are dealing with a person who to quote from Sasha Litvinenko's last statement, has no regard to human life or civilised values and who is prepared to kill at random."
5. Marina Litvinenko and Alexander Goldfarb, friend of Litvinenko family, talking to journalist
6. SOUNDBITE: (English) John Lough, Associate Fellow of Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House:
"Well, put it this way, it's over nine years since Mr Litvinenko was murdered in London, a number of measures were taken at the time to indicate that this was unacceptable behaviour. For example, cooperation with the security agency, the FSB was suspended, there were various travel restrictions put in place, that sort of thing, some expulsions at the time. I don't think that anything substantial beyond that is going to happen now other than that there will almost certainly be (UK Home Secretary) Theresa May has talked about asset freezes. Whether they'll go beyond the two suspects, that remains to be seen, but I think what this is generally going to do is to slow down any further efforts to rebuild relations with Mr Putin and the Russian government."
7. Lough leaving building
STORYLINE:
President Vladimir Putin probably approved a plan by Russia's FSB security service to kill a former agent-turned-Kremlin critic who died after drinking tea laced with radioactive poison, a British judge said on Thursday in a strongly worded report that led Moscow to accuse Britain of souring bilateral relations.
Judge Robert Owen, who led a public inquiry into the 2006 killing of Alexander Litvinenko, said he was certain that two Russian men had given Litvinenko tea containing a fatal dose of polonium-210 during a meeting at a London hotel.
He said there was a "strong probability" that Russia's FSB, successor to the Soviet Union's KGB spy agency, directed the killing and that the operation was "probably approved" by Putin, then as now the president of Russia.
Marina Litvinenko, the spy's widow, welcomed Thursday's ruling.
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