You're reading: Russia rejects blame in murder of ex-spy Litvinenko

MOSCOW - Russia denied on Friday that it was involved in the murder of Kremlin critic and former spy Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006.

A British lawyer on Thursday told a preliminary hearing into
Litvinenko’s poisoning that the Russian government was most
likely involved in his death, which has soured relations between
Moscow and London.

But Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich
told reporters: “We hope that as a result of the (legal
process)… all the baseless allegations about some kind of a
Russian involvement in this affair will be dispelled once and
for all.”