section_path: Foreign policy/United Kingdom/Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko
section_name: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko
paragraph_text: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko
  
  The end of 2006 brought more strained relations in the wake of the death by polonium poisoning in London of former KGB and FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko, who became an MI6 agent in 2003. In 2007, the crisis in relations continued with the expulsion of four Russian envoys over Russia's refusal to extradite former KGB bodyguard Andrei Lugovoi to face charges in the murder. Mirroring the British actions, Russia expelled UK diplomats and took other retaliatory steps.
  
  In 2015, the British Government launched a public inquiry into Litvinenko's death, presided over by Robert Owen, a former British High Court judge. The Owen report, published on 21 January 2016, stated, "The FSB operation to kill Mr. Litvinenko was probably approved by Mr Patrushev and also by President Putin". The report outlined some possible motives for the murder, including Litvinenko's public statements and books about the alleged involvement of the FSB in mass murder, and what was "undoubtedly a personal dimension to the antagonism" between Putin and Litvinenko.