Litvinenko's murder was "probably" approved by Putin

HOW do you deal with an important country that has murdered one of your citizens? That is the question facing the prime minister, David Cameron, after a public inquiry in London blamed two Russians, probably working on direct orders from the authorities in Moscow, for the lethal poisoning in 2006 of Alexander Litvinenko, a fugitive former KGB officer who was advising Britain’s spy service.

The inquiry came about only after a dogged legal battle by Mr Litvinenko’s widow, Marina. Its report, published on January 21st, vindicates her husband, who on his deathbed accused the Russian state of ordering his murder. Sir Robert Owen, a retired high court judge, firmly identified the longtime suspects in the case, Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun, as the people who put polonium into Mr Litvinenko’s tea (he said that they probably did not know the nature of the poison, and had no personal grudge against him). In cautious legal language, Sir Robert’s report examined, and skewered, alternative theories—including that Mr Litvinenko poisoned himself, that he was bumped off by British intelligence, or that he fell foul of gangland associates.