A long-awaited public inquiry into the death of a former Russian K-G-B spy has begun in London.
Alexander Litvinenko died in 2006, just weeks after drinking tea poisoned with a rare radioactive isotope.
British authorities blame Russian President Vladimir Putin for the poisoning, a claim he has always denied.
A slow and painful death.
And a lengthy wait for an inquiry into the murder of ex-Russian K-G-B agent, Alexander Litvinenko.
Working at the time for Britain's MI6 foreign intelligence service, the 43 year-old died nine years ago after drinking tea poisoned with a rare radioactive isotope.
British authorities believe the Russian critic's green tea was laced with polonium at a hotel bar in London in November 2006.
They say Mr Litvinenko was meeting two Russians, Andrei Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun.
Alexander Litvinenko died three weeks later.
Ben Emmerson, the lawyer representing his widow, has described the poisoning as barbaric.
"That murder was an act of unspeakable barbarism that inflicted on Mr Litvinenko the most painful and lingering death imaginable. It is, and was also, an act of nuclear terrorism on the streets of a major city which put the lives of numerous other members of the public at risk."
The public inquiry has heard that Mr Litvinenko may have been poisoned on two other occasions, not just once, as previously thought by authorities.
Evidence is being offered that he may have ingested polonium twice in the weeks before the fatal dose in 2006.
Russia has always denied British accusations that it has any involvement in his death.
But the inquiry has heard Mr Litvinenko told British police from his hospital bed before his death that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his murder.
Mr Litvinenko, who fled Russia exactly six years before his death, had become a strident critic of Mr Putin.
Lawyer for the inquiry, Robert Tam, read out Mr Litvinenko's dying statement in court.
"You may succeed in silencing me but that silence comes at a price. You have shown yourself to be as barbaric and ruthless as your most hostile critics have claimed. You have shown yourself to have no respect for life, liberty or any civilised value. You may succeed in silencing one man, but the howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Mr Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life. May God forgive you for what you have done not only to me, but to beloved Russia and its people."
Litvinenko family lawyer Ben Emmerson has told the inquiry Mr Litvinenko was killed for trying to expose links between the Kremlin and organised crime.
He says the inquiry will hear evidence that Vladimir Putin ran what he called a mafia state.
"The intimate relationships that will be proved to exist between the Kremlin and Russian organised crime syndicates around the world are so close as to make the two effectively indistinguishable."
British authorities say there is enough evidence to charge with murder the two ex-K-G-B agents who served Mr Litvinenko the poisoned tea at the London hotel.
Russia has rejected British attempts to extradite the two men, but they have been invited to give evidence to the inquiry by videolink from Russia.
The controversy generated by the killing brought Anglo-Russian relations to a post-Cold War low.
As ties improved, Britain rejected holding an inquiry in 2013, but with relations subsequently soured by the Ukraine crisis, the British government changed its mind last July.
After almost a decade of battling for answers, Mr Litvinenko's wife Marina believes the inquiry will finally bring out the truth.a
She says she is not politically motivated and just wants to learn the truth about her husband's death.
"I would like to say I never fight against...not Russia not UK. I was fighting, if you are talking about fighting, for justice. For right for me to know the truth, for my rights to know what happened to my husband. I believe, everything that has happened in court... it will help to rebuild relationship between Russia and the United Kingdom."
The inquiry is due to conclude by the end of 2015.
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