No New Inquiry Into Russian Spy’s Death

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/13/world/europe/no-new-inquiry-into-russian-spys-death.html

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British officials have refused to hold a public inquiry into the death of the former Russian intelligence officer Alexander V. Litvinenko, a coroner said Friday, quashing what he described as the best hope of finding out what lay behind the former spy’s poisoning. Mr. Litvinenko’s widow, who blames the Kremlin for her husband’s death, accused Britain of putting relations with Russia ahead of uncovering the truth. The coroner, Robert Owen, told a court hearing that the government had informed him Friday that it was turning down his request for an inquiry, but had not said why. Mr. Owen is overseeing a long-delayed inquest into the death of Mr. Litvinenko, above, a K.G.B. agent who became a critic of the Kremlin and died in November 2006 after drinking tea laced with the radioactive isotope polonium-210 at a London hotel. Britain accused two Russians of the killing, but Moscow has refused to extradite them.