It is difficult to continue simply dismissing such suggestions from Lugovoi, given that his claim that Litvinenko worked for MI6 was contemptuously repudiated for years, before being abruptly conceded by his widow in October 2011.  

Murdered ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko worked as a paid agent for the British security service MI6, it was sensationally claimed today.

He was also employed by Spanish intelligence investigating links between the  Kremlin and Russian organised crime, a pre-inquest hearing was told.

The claims were made as a lawyer for the inquest declared that the Russian state had a case to answer over the dissident's death at a London hospital in 2006.