“My close and faithful friend Dmitry Kovtun has suddenly passed away after a serious illness linked to a coronavirus infection,” says Lugovoj.
Kovtun and Lugovoj were earlier KGB agents and are suspected of poisoning Litvinenko at a hotel restaurant in London, by spicing up his tea with the radioactive substance polonium-210. He died three weeks later.
The European Court of Justice ruled last year that Kovtun and Lugovoy “beyond all reasonable doubt” carried out the act and that “Russia was responsible”.
The then British Prime Minister David Cameron said in 2016 that the assassination was a “state-sanctioned act” by Russia.
Moscow, like the suspects themselves, has consistently denied the act.