Marina Litvinenko, widow of the poisoned Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko, speaks about two decades of fighting for justice following her husband's death in London in 2006. A former dancer who grew up near the Kremlin, Marina met Alexander on her 31st birthday. As he began exposing corruption in post-communist Russia, the couple fled to the UK seeking political asylum and built a life in London—until Alexander's murder by polonium poisoning marked a turning point in Western-Russian relations.
In this reflection at Conway Hall, Marina discusses how they became targets of Putin's regime, what his assassination reveals about the methods of the Russian state, and what their story tells us today about the consequences of challenging autocratic power, particularly as Putin faces mounting pressure from his war in Ukraine.
