The downside of an investigation into a state crime. M6 this Thursday airs Polonium Murder, the Litvinenko Affair, a four-episode miniseries following the investigations of two Scotland Yard police officers, played here by Mark Bonnar (Catastrophe, Humans) and Neil Maskell (Peaky Blinders, Utopia). Their investigation concerns the assassination of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko, ordered by David Tennant (Doctor Who, Broadchurch) in London in 2006 by Director of the FSB Nikolai Patrushev and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The British series, written by George Kay, creator and showrunner of Lupine for Netflix, also features his widow Marina’s struggle, interpreted by Russian-American Margarita Levieva, to prove the Russian state’s involvement in the affair. An incredible true story, unfortunately still relevant.
“This drama is very close to reality,” Marina Litvinenko applauded during a virtual press conference for the French press. It all started in 2016 when Richard Kerbaj, then a journalist at the Times, contacted her to collaborate on his documentary Hunting the KGB Killers, which tells the case of Alexander Litvinenko from the police perspective.
“He told me we were going to make this a fiction, but I wasn’t sure if it would come to fruition. When he told me that ITV had signed on for a series and who would be part of the team, I was really impressed,” recalls the Russian dissident’s widow.
“My husband asked me to tell”
The photo of Alexander Litvinenko on his sickbed entered the collective memory. She made headlines around the world shortly before her death at the age of 43. On set, David Tennant and the production team recreated the (infamous) take. “He is a very well-known actor in Britain, and thanks to him a new generation of viewers will learn about my husband’s story for the first time,” Marina Litvinenko is pleased to say.
The latter says of Margarita Levieva, the actress who plays her on screen: “We saw each other several times to walk in Hyde Park, to lunch, to see a ballet … I never told her, gave no advice , but I later realized that she had studied my way of speaking and walking. She is very fair. »
After the documentaries, the books, the play A Very Expensive Poison taken from the book of the same name and created in London in 2019, Marina Litvinenko continues to occupy the media space to perpetuate and denounce the memory of the one she affectionately called Sasha his Murderer Vladimir Putin and his corrupt regime: “Sasha asked me to tell and explain what happened to us. I made that promise to him. »
“No one could believe this story”
The miniseries begins one evening in November 2006 when Alexander Litvinenko tells his wife and son that they have just become naturalized Englishmen. A few moments later he gets violently nauseous. He wants to be heard by Scotland Yard at University College Hospital in London. This former Russian intelligence agent and whistleblower claims he was poisoned on Vladimir Putin’s direct orders. His speech makes the police doubt: “I want to report a murder to you. what murder? mine…”
“The use of radioactive polonium, Vladimir Putin’s name and Sasha’s name went around the world. But in 2006, the police had great difficulty investigating. Nobody could believe this story,” the widow recalls. Sixteen days later, two Scotland Yard officers were dispatched to the dissident’s bedside when his condition had seriously deteriorated.
On his deathbed, Alexander Litvinenko provides investigators with accurate details of the places and people he visited. A race against time begins to discover the nature of the poison ingested and to protect those who may have come into contact with the substance. “This is not a political thriller, but a police investigation,” explains Marina Litvinenko.
“I fight for justice, memory, love”
Litvinenko died on November 23 from polonium-210 poisoning. Tirelessly assisted in their investigations by his wife, Scotland Yard investigators will establish the direct involvement of FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the affair. This will lead to an unprecedented diplomatic crisis between Britain and Russia. Fifteen years later, in 2021, the European Court of Human Rights found Russia “responsible” for the killing of the former Russian spy.
“When I talk about my experiences, I try not to use the word ‘against’ but ‘for’. When you fight something, you waste a lot of energy and never quite get what you want. I fight for justice, memory, love, ”says Marina Litvinenko. Anyone who does not despair that Vladimir Putin will one day be brought to justice for his crimes has now turned his attention to Ukraine. She would like to get involved in a charitable campaign for Ukrainian children. “My story is just one chapter in this long book about the allegations of this regime: the war in Georgia, the assassination of opposition leaders in Russia and dissidents, and the war in Ukraine,” she concludes.