© Sergei Karpukhin / Reuters
A former Russian spy may have been assassinated in London on the orders of the Russian president because he called Vladimir Putin a pedophile. A report by retired British High Court Judge Sir Robert Owen released Thursday concludes that Putin “probably” approved the November 2006 killing of Alexander Litvinenko after he allegedly claimed the president used his position to erase video evidence of himself having sex with underage boys. “The FSB operation to kill Mr. Litvinenko was probably approved by Mr. Patrrushev, then head of the FSB, and also by President Putin,” Owen told the Royal Courts of Justice. Owen found that Litvinenko’s criticism of the Kremlin and the FSB contributed to the motive behind the murder, which was carried out through a pot of green tea laced with the radioactive isotope polonium-210 in a London hotel restaurant.