Full Disclosure with James O'Brien
Description
Marina Litvinenko never wanted to be a public figure. Raised as an only child in an ordinary Soviet family, she dreamed of dancing professionally and found freedom, colour and possibility on the ballroom floor. But her life changed irrevocably when she met Alexander “Sasha” Litvinenko, a security officer whose growing alarm at corruption inside Russia’s intelligence services would eventually force them into exile.
In this special episode of Full Disclosure, James O’Brien speaks to Marina about her new memoir ‘A Life in Fragments: Our Love, His Murder, My Resistance’. She recalls growing up amid the shortages and double standards of the Soviet Union, meeting Sasha for the first time, and watching him become increasingly determined to expose the criminality and corruption he encountered within the state.
Marina describes the fear that followed Sasha’s public accusations against senior FSB figures, his imprisonment and their decision to seek safety in London with their son, Anatoly. Six years later, Sasha was poisoned with polonium-210 after a meeting in central London, dying on 23 November 2006.
What followed was Marina’s long, painful pursuit of the truth, with a nearly decade-long fight for a public inquiry into her husband’s death. Twenty years on from his poisoning, Marina reflects on the early failures to understand the threat Putin posed, the cost of complacency and why she has continued to speak out.
It is an extraordinary, intimate conversation about love, courage and resistance - and a widow’s determination to ensure that her husband’s name, and the truth of what happened to him, are never forgotten.
Find out more about ‘A Life in Fragments: Our Love, His Murder, My Resistance’ by Marina Litvinenko here.
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