- Andrei Lugovoy was accused by Britain of poisoning Alexander Litvinenko
- He is now high up in a Russian anti-corruption committee and is a Putin ally
- The body has been tasked with investigating the poisoning of Alexei Navalny
- The dissident politician was poisoned with Novichok during a flight in RussiaĀ
The Russian spy who was accused of killing Alexander Litvinenko has been given a major role in the investigation into Alexei Navalny’s poisoning.
Andrei Lugovoy, 54, is high up in Moscow’s Security and Anti-Corruption committee which has been tasked with probing the latest poison attack on an anti-Kremlin figure.
Vladimir Putin‘s ally previously worked as a KGB ally and is still wanted by British authorities over Litvinenko’s poisoning with radioactive polonium-210 in 2006, but Russia have denied his extradition.
Navalny, a prominent Putin critic, left his Berlin hospital for the first time this week after being poisoned with Novichok, the same substance used in the Salisbury attack in 2018.
The dissident politician fell ill while on a flight in Russia, spending a total of 18 days in a coma.
It was initially suggested by Navalny’s friends that he was poisoned with a cup of tea that he drank at Tomsk airport shortly before boarding the flight where he fell ill.
But his political allies now believe the agent was slipped into a water bottle he drank from at a hotel.
The 44-year-old revealed that he is still in rehabilitation and is learning basic skills such as balancing, catching, throwing and writing following the attempt on his life, which has been blamed on the Russian state.
The Kremlin continues to deny involvement in the poison plot, and has requested evidence from Germany to support its conclusion of Novichok poisoning.
Putin is under pressure to launch an investigation into the attack, and Lugovoy will be a key figure in the probe, according to The Mirror.
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DailyMail.co.uk
