Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian agent killed with polonium in London, believed Vladimir Putin lacked the mettle to stamp out corruption inside Russia's security agency and that he had links to organized crime, his widow said on Monday.
Giving evidence to a public inquiry at London's High Court into his death, Marina Litvinenko said her husband had taken his concerns in 1998 to Putin, who then headed the Federal Security Service (FSB), the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB.
Marina Litvinenko said Putin, who on Dec. 31, 1999, would become Russia's acting president, had done nothing and that shortly after raising his concerns, Litvinenko himself, known to his family as Sasha, had come under investigation.