Charged With Murder

The man accused of killing a Russian dissident in London came from Moscow -- and the Kremlin is protecting him.

THE MURDER charge against a former Russian KGB agent announced yesterday by Britain's Crown Prosecution Service is sensational in several respects. It alleges the assassination in the center of London of another former KGB operative and latter-day British citizen -- Alexander Litvinenko, who had been a bitter adversary of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The means of murder, the rare and extremely toxic radioactive element polonium-210, had the effect of a small "dirty bomb": Dozens of sites in London were contaminated, and at least 17 people besides the victim were left with elevated levels of polonium in their bodies.

Because of the element's radioactive signature, investigators have been able to determine that it was transported from Moscow by the accused man or an associate and slipped into Mr. Litvinenko's tea during a meeting at a hotel last Nov. 1. Mr. Litvinenko died in agony three weeks later, after accusing Mr. Putin of ordering his slaying. Yesterday, British officials said they were prepared to charge Moscow-based "security consultant" Andrei Lugovoy, and they requested his extradition.

British investigators have not alleged that Mr. Putin was involved in the murder. But his behavior since November is hardly exonerating. The Russian president has shielded Mr. Lugovoy and his associates from direct questioning or arrest; yesterday, Russian spokesmen were quick to say that Mr. Lugovoy would not be extradited. The Kremlin has launched its own, diversionary "investigation," which has targeted other enemies of Mr. Putin in London without offering any evidence connecting them to the crime.

No action has been taken against Mr. Lugovoy. Nor has there been any report of an investigation into the leakage of polonium, almost all the global supply of which is produced by a handful of Russian institutions. If Russian authorities played no role in the murder, they must have allowed a dangerous nuclear material to be stolen and smuggled abroad. Yet Mr. Putin appears indifferent.

Diplomats were pointing out that the prosecutor's charge is likely to accelerate an ongoing and rapid deterioration of relations between Russia and Britain, and between Russia and the West. If so, it won't be the fault of the British prosecutor or government, which could not and should not tolerate political murder or the spread of radioactive poisons in its capital. Russia under Mr. Putin has become a country that flouts the rule of law, not only at home but increasingly abroad -- in its cyber-attacks and economic sabotage of neighbors from Estonia to Georgia, in its confiscation of foreign-owned assets and in its refusal to comply with international treaties. If such belligerence is tolerated, it is sure to escalate.