FROM polonium poisoner to toxic propagandist, Andrey Lugovoy is living proof of how Vladimir Putin rewards his assassins.
To this day, the ex-FSB operative, 59, is wanted by Scotland Yard over the murder of staunch Kremlin foe Alexander Litvinenko, 43, in 2006.
Andrey Lugovoy is still wanted for the murder of Alexander Litvinenko[/caption]
Lugovoy lives a luxurious life in Russia married to his glamorous second wife – singer Ksenia Lugovoya[/caption]
Alexander Litvinenko pictured in intensive care in London on November 20, 2006[/caption]
Fierce Putin critic Litvinenko was killed after he drank a cup of tea spiked with a lethal radioactive cocktail at a Mayfair hotel.
As Litvinenko slowly died in excruciating pain, Lugovoy scuttled back to Moscow, leaving behind his own tell-tale radiation trail.
The Russian agent left invisible footprints in his hotel room, at the Emirates Stadium where he watched Arsenal, and on his BA plane seat.
Back to safety in the motherland, Lugovoy’s extradition to Britain was blocked by Putin following the audacious state-sponsored killing.
The tyrant instead fast-tracked his loyal pawn’s career as a hardline MP and television personality.
John Foreman CBE, former UK Defence Attaché to Russia, told The Sun: “The oafish Lugovoy is the perfect example of the descent of Russia into the moral abyss under Putin.”
Now acting as a “rabid talking head”, Foreman said his journey from Russian assassin to TV star is a clear “sign of Putin’s tacit support”.
He added: “Lugovoy used his new found notoriety to quickly become an MP – a sign of Putin’s tacit support and also giving him immunity – and then act as an occasional rabid talking head. He’s also enriched himself.”
The outrageous Polonium-210 London murder was the clearest evidence of Putin’s evil and one of the most ambitious attacks ever on UK soil.
History repeated itself years later when double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned, this time with nerve agent Novichok, in Salisbury.
Putin’s danger was laid bare with his 2022 invasion of Ukraine – but alarm bells had been ringing much earlier with the poisoning of Litvinenko.
A judge’s 300-page report concluded Lugovoy and his co-suspect Dmitri Kovtun – who died in 2022 from Covid “complications” – did poison Litvinenko.
The assassination was “probably approved” personally by Putin, Sir Robert Owen, chairman of the public inquiry into the death, said.
Lugovoy was even given a state honour by Putin in 2015, with the President awarding him a medal for “services to the motherland”.
Former KGB agent Jack Barsky told The Sun he wasn’t surprised by Putin’s commemoration of the assassin-turned-talking head.
He said Putin has a long history of celebrating those who serve Russia – no matter how dark their deeds.
Lugovoy used his new found notoriety to quickly become an MP – a sign of Putin’s tacit support and also giving him immunity – and then act as an occasional rabid talking head
John Foreman CBE
Emphasising the Russian dictator’s direct involvement in the murder, Barsky said: “Putin had to know about this… those kind of operations cannot happen without Putin knowing.”
The killing came four months after Litvinenko – who worked for Western spy agencies – had claimed Putin was a closet paedophile.
Litvinenko, a former FSB agent, alleged there were “blank spots” in Putin’s career that could be explained by his superiors’ knowledge “that he was a paedophile”.
The Russian president had found “videotapes… which showed him making sex with some underage boys” that he then hid, according to Litvinenko.
The allegations are unconfirmed – but may have given a motive for using Lugovoy as an assassin to kill Litvinenko.
Vladimir Putin fast-tracked Lugovoy’s career and awarded him a state honour[/caption]
Lugovoy leaves a radio station where he answered questions from foreign journalists in Moscow in 2007[/caption]
Today – after a prostate cancer scare two years ago – a frailer and older Lugovoy is furiously directing his fire against the West, and especially Britain.
Lugovoy pompously brands himself as “The King’s Personal Enemy” – the title of one of his low-grade TV shows, and has free rein to launch spiteful attacks often linked to Putin’s war in Ukraine.
In the years following the brazen assassination, he ironically fronted a show called “Traitors” on Russian television – a series about Soviet citizens who “betrayed the motherland” for the West.
Ex-Georgian diplomat and Russia watcher Natalie Sabanadze said: “Lugavoy is a person who kind of encapsulates this sort of anti-Western, anti-European stance of Russia.
“He can present himself almost as being on the front of fighting against the West… the hero fighting the UK.
“This whole ‘traitors’ idea is very big in Russia.”
If history had played out in a different way, he might now be ending his two-decade jail sentence in Britain for Litvinenko’s murder.
Living under Putin’s protection
Instead, he lives a luxurious life in Russia married to his glamorous and colourful second wife, 36-year-old singer Ksenia Lugovoya.
The former night club dancer and TV soap actress is mum to three of his six children, including one born since his cancer scare.
Lugovoy studiously avoids travelling abroad in case the long arm of British justice might still arrest and extradite him to Wormwood Scrubs.
But Ksenia travels the globe, and has been seen singing to wealthy Russians sheltering from Putin’s war in Dubai.
Video shows their kitsch £200,000 wedding, with bridesmaids and groomsmen dressed in sky-blue outfits to match his tie.
Wife Ksenia Lugovoya has been seen singing to wealthy Russians sheltering from Putin’s war in Dubai[/caption]
Ksenia is a former night club dancer and TV soap actress[/caption]
The over-the-top festivities took place in the celebrated Abrau-Durso winery located in the picturesque Black Sea resort of Gelendzhik.
The tea-spiker and his bride changed clothes during the ceremony from traditional Cossack outfits to football kits.
There were ice sculptures, along with singing and fireworks, washed down with Russian vodka.
It is now believed that the secret owner of this venue was none other than wine-loving Putin whose £1billion clifftop palace, compared to the lair of a James Bond villain, is nearby.
Ksenia’s first project as they began life together was running restaurants in Moscow – ironically specialising in serving exotic teas.
At the time, she claimed she was “too young” to have heard of the allegations of her husband’s poisoning of Litvinenko.
The oafish Lugovoy is the perfect example of the descent of Russia into the moral abyss under Putin
John Foreman CBE
“My biggest luck was meeting my husband. Not only the outstanding event of my life, it was my fate. We match very well,” she said.
And in 2016, she starred in a TV drama that mocked the UK over the polonium murder plot – with Litvinenko portrayed as a traitor to his motherland.
Ksenia played the aide of exiled tycoon Boris Berezovsky – who plays the man who ordered the killing with the intention of blaming enemy Putin.
Lugovoy, meanwhile, is portrayed as an honest hero in the TV show.
The eight-part series, called Not Under Jurisdiction and shown on the NTV channel, was seen as another jibe at the UK by the Kremlin.
At the time, Ksenia said “it was interesting to… feel involved in those events witnessed by my husband”.
Property tycoon
Mystery surrounds Ksenia and Lugovoy’s wealth.
The family live in a pre-revolutionary building on Lyalin Lane in Moscow in a 4,000sqft apartment.
Ksenia bought another 2,200sqft apartment in the same building for around £500,000 – a sum that exceeded the couple’s combined officially declared income for three years, including his earnings as an ultranationalist Liberal Democratic Party MP.
Reports have linked Lugovoy to cryptocurrency mining in Siberia, and a cash-to-crypto outlet in Moscow.
Novaya Gazeta Europe, a media outlet Lugovoy has targeted, said: “His wife also enjoys trips to the Seychelles, known not only for beaches but also for offshore account services.”
Lugovoy especially guns for Russians branded “foreign agents” due to their supposed links to Putin’s enemies abroad, demanding: “A ‘foreign agent’ is an enemy of the people….a traitor whose place is behind bars, for life.”
Ksenia Lugovoya starred in a TV drama mocking the UK over the polonium murder plot[/caption]
The same might be said of polonium poisoners.
His bile is particularly directed at Britain, for example accusing the UK – with no evidence – of involvement in the Crocus City concert hall terrorist Islamic terrorist strike last year in which 145 people died.
Seeing the hand of MI6 everywhere, Britain was also blamed for orchestrating the Syrian conflict to remove Russian ally Bashar Assad from power.
“The British establishment is obsessed with Russia, because it’s easier than saving its reputation,” he said in March.
A sinister media outlet called The Underside – linked to Lugovoy – specialises in attacks on Britain.
In June, it published a leaked guest list of prominent Russians attending King Charles III’s birthday reception, held at the British Embassy, hosted by ambassador Nigel Casey, seeing a plot against Putin.
“It’s 2025, WAR is ongoing,” the report said.
“And opposite the Kremlin, these individuals gather to discuss Russia‘s future over a glass of sparkling wine in the company of Britons and ambassadors of Western countries.
“These are not random meetings — this is strategic work against our country. Is it still invisible to someone or convenient to ignore?
“The enemy is inside, and it is much closer than it seems.”
A Telegram channel linked to Lugovoy – Zametki Volanda – welcomed the Russian missile strike which damaged the British Council office in Kyiv in August.
Alexander Litvinenko, Kremlin critic, was murdered in 2006[/caption]
Lugovoy is a regular pundit on Russia’s sickening TV propaganda shows[/caption]
And in June he warned that the appointment of Blaise Metreweli as head of MI6 meant “the new field of London’s ‘Great Game’ against Russia is cyberspace”.
A regular pundit on Russia’s sickening TV propaganda shows, he called for Britain to be nuked over reports London might offer its nuclear shield to Germany.
Lugovoy highlighted a video simulation of the impact, earlier shown by propaganda channel Tsargrad TV.
The sinister MP said: “I recommend that those who are now making the decision on the deployment of nuclear forces in Germany for France and Great Britain read it.”
Lately, he has demanded infiltrating Western political parties, starting with the Democratic Party in the US which he sees as strongly anti-Russian.
“We should work with politicians. We should buy them,” he insisted.
“I am deeply convinced of this. When we talk about the aggressive soft power that they use against us…”
He has also targeted Russians who over many years received UK Chevening Scholarships to study in Britain – absurdly claiming this was a secret service plot to introduce “agents” into Moscow’s state structures.
Many were named, opening them up to bullying and harassment.
Lugovoy has long denied murdering Litvinenko, instead accusing his favourite target – MI6 – of being behind his Polonium-210 death.
He said: “You don’t have to be a lawyer to understand that there must be a motive behind such a crime. Alexander was not my enemy.”
Death of Litvinenko
ALEXANDER Litvinenko died in 2006 but the European Court of Human Rights only made a ruling on who was responsible in 2021.
Litvinenko was a former Russian spy who was killed in London in 2006.
He had been an officer with the FSB – the successor to the KGB – but fled to Britain with his family to seek political asylum after criticising Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Litvinenko worked in the UK as a journalist and writer and, after his death, it was revealed he had been paid by MI6.
He began vomiting in his home an hour after drinking tea with Lugovoi and Kovtun at the Millennium Hotel in London’s Mayfair.
He died an agonising death after three weeks in hospital and a later investigation revealed his tea had been spiked with a dose of polonium-210.
A radioactive trail around London was also found by investigators.
Litvinenko’s final conversation before his death was with his wife, Marina.
She told a public inquiry into his killing that his last words to her were: “I love you very much.”
On September 21, 2021, the European Court of Human Rights found Russia was responsible for Litvinenko’s death.
His murder was suspected to have been personally signed off by Putin, something the Kremlin has repeatedly denied.
Dmitri Kovtun and Andrei Lugovoi, who both face US sanctions, were the two men wanted in the UK for Litvinenko’s murder.
The pair are suspected of assassinating Litvinenko by poisoning.
The court said in a statement on its ruling: “Russia was responsible for the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko in the UK.
“The Court found in particular that there was a strong prima facie case that, in poisoning Mr Litvinenko, Mr Lugovoi and Mr Kovtun had been acting as agents of the Russian State.”
Lugovoy, pictured in 2007, is still wanted for the murder of Litvinenko[/caption]
