Luke Harding

1st November 2006. Alexander Litvinenko is poisoned in central London. 22 days later he dies, killed from the inside. The poison? Polonium; a rare, lethal and highly radioactive substance.

His crime? He had made some powerful enemies in Russia. Based on extensive interviews with those closest to the events (including the murder suspects) and access to trial evidence, Harding gives the inside story of the event. He finds a deadly trail that seemingly leads back to the Russian state itself.

Harding argues that the assassination marked the beginning of the deterioration of Moscow's relations with the West and a decade of geo-political disruptions--from the war in Ukraine, two million people displaced and a Russian president's defiant rejection of a law-based international order. This is a tragedy involving the Russian mafia, the KGB, MI6 agents, dedicated British coppers and Russian dissidents.

Luke Harding is a foreign correspondent for The Guardian and was posted in Russia from 2007 until 2011 when he was officially refused re-entry.