Marina Litvinenko remains one of Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critics and a keen advocate for Ukraine (Picture: Susannah Ireland/Reuters/AP)
Vladimir Putin is playing a game of ‘who blinks first’ to scare off Western support for Ukraine, according to the widow of Alexander Litvinenko.
Marina Litvinenko, speaking in a week of escalating tensions, said the Russian president is trying to sow fear and disunity among Kyiv’s allies.
She told Metro that Putin is waging psychological warfare against the UK as he tries to retain a grip on power by prevailing on the battlefield.
Ms Litvinenko’s husband, a former FSB officer, died 18 years ago tomorrow after being poisoned with the highly radioactive isotope polonium 210.
‘Anybody who is right-minded is opposed to Putin’s war in Ukraine, no matter what party or politics you follow,’ she said.
‘Freedom and democracy are the fundamental rights for any country, and Ukraine is fighting for the right to be Ukrainian.
‘The old democratic model which has been built since the Second World War, and the Budapest Memorandum [where Ukraine gave up its nuclear arsenal in exchange for security guarantees], is collapsing.
‘Someone with nuclear weapons and financial power is making up their own rules. This is a huge challenge for the whole world.
‘We are not simply talking about Ukraine as a country, we are talking about the fundamental idea of democracy.
‘This is about the free world as much as it is about Ukraine.’
Marina Litvinenko has a warning for the world as she continues to speak out on the 18th anniversary of her husband Alexander’s death (Picture: Susannah Ireland)
Ms Litvinenko, 62, spoke today as Moscow continued to ratchet up tensions with the West in the wake of Joe Biden giving Ukraine permission to use long-range missiles to hit targets in Russia.
Putin has lowered the threshold for using his nuclear arsenal and effectively said that Moscow could carry out strikes on military facilities belonging to the UK and other countries backing Kyiv.
A Russia-linked hybrid war is already playing out in the UK, leading to a warning from MI5 director-general Ken McCallum that ‘Putin’s henchmen’ are seeking to ‘generate mayhem’ on British and European streets.
Ms Litvinenko has experienced first-hand the Kremlin’s murderous reach when her husband, who she knows as Sasha, was poisoned by two Russian agents who slipped the polonium into his tea.
A public inquiry in 2016 concluded that the hit was carried out three weeks before his death at the Millennium Hotel in London by Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun, probably with Putin’s approval.
Ms Litvinenko said: ‘Putin is using psychological warfare as a form of control. The tactic is to destablise Ukraine’s allies and to frighten them away from supporting Ukraine.
Alexander Litvinenko in the intensive care unit at University College Hospital in 2006 after being poisoned with polonium 210 (Picture: PA)
‘For a long time Russia has gained power because the West has closed its eyes and not said the truth.
‘Now we need to push back, and …read more
Source:: Metro