Two weeks before his poisoning , Alexander Litvinenko accused Vladimir Putin of ordering the assassination of the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya and stated that a former presidential candidate , Irina Hakamada , warned Politkovskaya about threats to her life coming from the Russian president . Litvinenko advised Politkovskaya to escape from Russia immediately . Hakamada denied her involvement in passing any specific threats , and said that she warned Politkovskaya only in general terms more than a year earlier . It remains unclear if Litvinenko referred to an earlier statement made by Boris Berezovsky , who claimed that Boris Nemtsov , a former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia , received word from Hakamada that Putin threatened her and like-minded colleagues in person . According to Berezovsky , Putin stated that Hakamada and her colleagues " will take in the head immediately , literally , not figuratively " if they " open the mouth " about the Russian apartment bombings
Russian apartment bombings
Russian apartment bombings
Alexander Litvinenko