The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on Russia “responsible” of the assassination of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko, poisoned with polonium-210 in 2006 in the United Kingdom.

The Court considers that there is “a strong presumption” that the perpetrators of the poisoning, named by a British investigation, “acted as agents of the Russian state”.

European magistrates finally point out that the Russian authorities have “no effective internal investigation “which would have made it possible to identify and judge people responsible for the murder”.

They therefore found Russia guilty of violations of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees the right to life, and of Article 38, which obliges states to provide the ECHR with all the documents necessary for the examination of a case.

Russia was ordered to pay 100,000 euros for non-pecuniary damage to the widow of Alexander Litvinenko, a particularly high sum in view of the Court’s case law.