Litvinenko feared second attack after partner’s rapid cancer decline

Marina Litvinenko says she feared her family was under threat again after her partner Alexei’s rapid decline from terminal cancer. Alexei died in 2018, eight years after Marina met him following the 2006 poisoning of her husband, former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko; she says she tries not to dwell on suspicions about Alexei’s links to Russia.

The article recounts how Marina’s son Anatoly encouraged her to find a new partner, and how she and Alexei grew close after meeting in Germany in 2010. Alexei, 66, died two months after his diagnosis, just 16 days after Marina’s mother, Zinaida, died of the same disease aged 81. Alexander, 43, was poisoned with polonium-210 in a London hotel in 2006 and died 22 days later; a public inquiry concluded his suspected killers were probably acting on Vladimir Putin’s orders.