国际英语新闻:British Judge: Putin 'Probably' OK'd Ex-Spy's Murder

Litvinenko's widow on Thursday called for all Russian intelligence operatives to be expelled from Britain, and she, like some British lawmakers, said she wanted sanctions imposed against individuals named as culprits in the inquiry.

"I received a letter last night from the home secretary promising action. It is unthinkable that the prime minister would do nothing in the face of damaging findings of Sir Robert Owen," Marina Litvinenko told reporters.

Prime Minister David Cameron's spokeswoman said that he found the findings "extremely disturbing" and that the government was considering what actions to take.

"It is not the way for any state, let alone a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, to behave," the spokeswoman said. "Regrettably, these findings confirm what we and previous governments believed."

Action by Britain unlikely

Britain has strong economic ties to Russia and is eager to recruit Putin’s help in ending the crisis in Syria. Analysts say those factors make it unlikely that leaders here will take any action that will threaten the wider relationship over the killing of one foreign former spy by two others.

London financier Bill Browder, a human rights campaigner and Putin critic, spoke out against what he said was the British government's reluctance to punish the Russian leader for Litvinenko's slaying.

“I can’t get inside the minds of the government officials but I can speculate, and what I would speculate is that it comes down to money. There’s a lot of Russian money sloshing around London, and I believe that there’s a concern among certain members of the government that that money would be less available if Britain took a moral stand on some of these issues,” Browder, the CEO and co-founder of investment fund Hermitage Capital Management, told VOA.  "Today’s response, as it stands right now from the British government, is a green light for him [Putin] to carry on doing murders, invasions and other atrocities without any consequences."

One battle has ended for Marina Litvinenko, but another has just begun.