'My murdered father Alexander Litvinenko warned the world about despot Putin''

'My murdered father Alexander Litvinenko warned the world about despot Putin'' Murdered Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko's son 20 years after he was poisoned says his brave and campaigning father was right about Putin when he warned the world about Kremlin chief Murdered former Russian spy Alexander Litvinkeno’s son has recalled the devastation of his father’s poisoning at the hands of ex-Moscow intelligence agency colleagues. Anatoly was just 12 when his ex-FSB spy father was cruelly assassinated 20 years ago, forced to die a painful death in London by Russian operatives who killed him with radioactive Polonium-210. Now 32 years-old he told how he clinged vainly to hopes his father would survive and that dissident Alexander’s predictions about Vladimir Putin turned out to be right. He told the Times: "I still believed he would recover even while he was hooked up to the critical life support machines. I refused to accept the alternative." Alexander Litvinenko died on November 23, 2006, aged 44, at University College Hospital in London, sparking a major alert Putin had ordered assassins on UK streets. Defector Litvinenko had become a prominent critic of Putin’s and coined the phrase “mafia state” to describe the St Petersburg tyrant’s corrupt rule over Russia. Now, almost 20 years after his father’s death Anatoly says: “I was stunned. It hit me like a punch in the face. I could not process it. I did not cry and was devoid of emotion. I could not understand it. “I was numb and just stared at the wall. I had a school newsletter in my hand and read an article repeatedly, probably 90 times, but just looked at the letters. “When I returned home I stared at the photos of an old encyclopaedia for hours. I could not engage emotionally because of the gravity of my dad's death." A High Court judge ruled Litvinenko's death aged 44 was a state-sponsored assassination by two former KGB agents who murdered their former colleague with tea laced with polonium in Mayfair. That meant he was killed on the orders of Putin. Anatoly says: "I take great pride in my father's work and bravery by standing up to Putin. He was extremely courageous. His warning about Putin is unfortunately more appropriate now than ever before." Whilst dying Litvineno allowed a photo of himself, emaciated in a green hospital gown, to be publicised globally, to highlight the brutality of Putin’s reule. Anatoly recalled: "It was shocking to see it on the front page of every newspaper. The scale of the situation then really hit home." But two days before his death Litvinenko dictated a letter that was read out by his friend Alex Goldfarb on the steps of London’s University College Hospital, where the campaigner was dying. In the letter he thanked British doctors and addressed Putin, saying: "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 have shown yourself to be unworthy of your office, to be unworthy of the trust of civilised men and women." Anatoly says: “I take great pride in my father's work and bravery by standing up to Putin. He was extremely courageous. His warning about Putin is unfortunately more appropriate now than ever before."