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 Litvinenko, 43, an outspoken critic of Putin who fled Russia, died
after drinking green tea laced with the rare radioactive isotope at
London's Millennium Hotel.
An inquiry led by British judge Robert Owen found that former KGB
bodyguard Andrei Lugovoy and another Russian, Dmitry Kovtun,
poisoned Litvinenko as part of an operation directed by Russia's
Federal Security Service (FSB), the main heir to the Soviet-era KGB.
"The FSB operation to kill Mr Litvinenko was probably approved by Mr
Patrushev, then head of the FSB, and also by President Putin," Owen
said.
"I have concluded that there is a strong probability that when Mr
Lugovoy poisoned Mr Litvinenko, he did so under the direction of the
FSB. I have further concluded that Mr Kovtun was also acting under
FSB direction," he said.
The judge said he was sure Lugovoy and Kovtun had placed the
polonium 210 in the teapot at the Millennium Hotel's Pine Bar on
November 1, 2006.
Traces of the highly radioactive substance were found at several
sites across the city.
 The Kremlin has always denied any involvement but the claim that
Putin directly ordered a killing of an opponent with a radioactive
isotope in a major Western capital provoked immediate censure from
Moscow.
Richard Horwell, the lawyer acting for London police, told the
inquiry the Russian state might have wanted Litvinenko dead for many
reasons, including his defection to Britain, his accusations of
Kremlin corruption, his sympathy for Chechen separatists and his
claims about Putin's lifestyle.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said what it called Britain's politicized,
biased and opaque handling of the Litvinenko case had clouded
relations.
The death of Litvinenko marked a post-Cold War low point in
Anglo-Russian relations, and ties have never recovered, marred
further by Russia's annexation of Crimea and its support for Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad.
It also raised serious domestic security concerns, Britain now being
home to a large number of Russian dissidents opposed to Putin and to
exiled "oligarchs". MURDER IN LONDON
The image of Litvinenko lying on his bed at London's University
College Hospital, gaunt and having lost his hair, was emblazoned
across British and other Western newspapers and later shown to the
inquiry. He took over three weeks to die.
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Litvinenko told detectives he believed Putin had directly ordered
his killing. The Kremlin dismissed that accusation at the time as
absurd.
But Russia declined to take part in the six-month British inquiry,
as did Lugovoy and Kovtun, the two Russian men who met with
Litvinenko in London.
Both Lugovoy and Kovtun have previously denied involvement and
Russia has refused to extradite them. Lugovoy was quoted by the
Interfax news agency as saying the accusation was absurd.
Some of the inquiry was held in secret and evidence from the British
government and spy agencies has not been publicly disclosed. Owen
said this information had helped form his conclusions which were
contained in his 326-page report.
Litvinenko's widow, Marina, called for Russian spies to be kicked
out of Britain and for sanctions against Russia.
"I'm calling immediately for exclusion from the UK of all Russian
intelligence operatives whether from the FSB, who murdered Sasha, or
from other Russian agencies based in the London embassy," she said
outside London's Royal Courts of Justice.
"I'm also calling for the imposition of targeted economic sanctions
and travel bans against named individuals, including Mr Patrushev
and Mr Putin," she said, adding that the British government had
promised action.
(Additional reporting by Costas Pitas and William Schomberg; Writing
by Kate Holton and Guy Faulconbridge; editing by Ralph Boulton)
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