My husband Alexander Litvinenko was murdered by Putin... then my new partner fell ill after travelling to Russia

'Mum, you spend so much time with me,' said the teenage son of murdered ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko. 'Don't you want to find someone, like a boyfriend?'Marina Litvinenko was rooted to the spot by the question Anatoly posed as they walked in the park.She had wrapped him in cotton wool, terrified he would be an easy target for their enemies. Once she composed herself, she asked whether he'd have a problem with her finding a new partner 'after your dad'.'I want you to be happy,' Anatoly answered. 'And maybe it would stop you fussing around me so much!' She gave him a playful shove, saying 'I don't fuss that much, do I?'. He didn't reply, just laughed.Like any youngster, Anatoly was pushing for his independence. Although grateful for being protected, he was desperate to see his widowed mother smile once again.Aged 16, Anatoly had only one man in mind, someone worthy of stepping up to the duty of caring for his beloved mother: a kind, charismatic and outspoken molecular chemist called Alexei, a Russian Marina met in Germany through close friends.However, as Marina reveals in an exclusive interview with The Crime Desk she was soon dealt a cruel double blow, something she describes as 'punishment for even thinking about being happy again'. A haunting picture of Litvinenko was released by his wife Marina and its impact reverberated around the world Alexander and Marina. The couple were married for 12 years until his death in 2006 After Alexander's death Marina found love again with a new partner Alexei who she had met in GermanyWithin eight years of dating Alexei, whose surname is withheld, she was told the persistent cough he ignored for months had been the final stages of terminal cancer. He died aged 66 in August 2018 – 16 days after her mother Zinaida, 81, who passed away from the same disease.It was the suddenness of Alexei's deterioration that had Marina fearing President Vladimir Putin had come for her family a second time.Welling up with tears, she said: 'For Anatoly the death of our friend Alexei was another trauma.'I think it was even worse. He was almost recovering after what happened to us in 2006. And suddenly, again?'You know, we all became quite suspicious, particularly, you hear Alexei had some connection to Russia, and he did travel to Russia, but I try not to think in this way.'It was very quick after diagnosis - he collapsed in two months.'Her husband Alexander, 43 – nicknamed Sasha – was poisoned by a lethal dose of radioactive polonium-210 administered in a cup of tea by two former KGB colleagues he met at a Mayfair hotel bar on November 1, 2006.Vomiting heavily, he was admitted to hospital where his condition gradually worsened as his throat and oesophagus burnt, a result of ingesting one million times the amount of the toxic substance needed to kill him.A haunting picture of Litvinenko – propped up in his hospital bed, hairless, eyes sunken, with sickly yellow-grey skin and covered by wires – was released by his Marina and sent shockwaves around the world. The once healthy non-smoker died in agony 22 days later.Marina fought for a public inquiry, chaired by Sir Robert Owen, which concluded suspected killers Andrei Lugovoy and Dmitri Kovtun were probably acting on the orders of Putin.Litvinenko had been a lieutenant-colonel in Russia's secret service in the 1990s. A fierce critic of Putin and the Kremlin, he fled to the UK and became a British citizen weeks before his assassination.Marina, now 64, led a tireless campaign for justice against some in Government more concerned about damage to UK-Russian relations than solving a brutal murder on the streets of London.So when she met Alexei in 2010, love was the last thing on Marina's mind – even if she hurdled the impossibility of getting Anatoly's blessing.Her life was too complicated, she told Alexei, but couldn't deny the chemistry existed. For the first time since Litvinenko died, her new suitor 'understood her on every level'.It was Alexei who arranged for a leading specialist to examine Anatoly's eye after he was hit by a stick at school, leaving him partially sighted.Alexei, a rebellious spirit who didn't like taking instructions from anyone, could also be romantic and gallant. He selflessly got soaked to the skin holding an umbrella over Marina as she waited on the pavement for a taxi in a rainstorm. Alexei would turn up at the airport with a huge bunch of sunflowers. Putin had been Litvinenko's ultimate boss but they reportedly fell out over corruption within Russia's secret service Twenty years on, one of his suspected killers Andrei Lugovoy (right) remains at large and has never faced trial. Dmitri Kovtun (left) died of Covid-19 in 2022. Within days, Alexei proposed to Marina with the words: 'I need you. Without you, I'm lost. You're the most extraordinary woman I've ever met.'She said: 'Sasha would have wanted us to be happy. Living a limited life and being unhappy, it's not right.'Alexei became a very, very good friend for Anatoly, very supportive, extraordinary and intellectual.'He proposed to me one week after we met. This was a shock but it's so similar to Sasha. Maybe I've met men like this - if they don't pinch me, I might just escape.'When informed, Anatoly said in astonishment: 'Alexei?'. 'He's old … but he's actually cool. I like him.'Last month, she was at home in London when she picked up a book and found handwritten postcard Alexei hid inside, wishing her a happy birthday.Marina said: 'What I really appreciated is Alexei respected Sasha so much and for me, this is a principal moment. Sasha is never, ever away from me or our life. Even if I have my other partner, he's always accepting. Sasha's here.'Marina was born opposite the Kremlin in the Soviet Union era. Her parents Anatoly and Zinaida worked long hours in a metalwork factory. Despite being poor, they gave their only child a happy upbringing. By contrast, Litvinenko - whose parents divorced when he was a baby - enlisted in the army aged 17.She met Litvinenko at a party on her 31st birthday. In a new raw and honest memoir, Marina describes the moment as a 'gift I didn't expect, and didn't know I wanted'.Dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, he was boyishly handsome. Having held her gaze, Litvinenko grinned and his whole face suddenly radiated, she recalls.But for recently divorced Marina, her feelings were lukewarm having realised Litvinenko was married and had a job with the FSB, the KGB's successor.'Meeting him was not like immediate love at first sight,' she revealed. 'I was in my thirties. Sasha was in the middle of collapsing his own marriage. I don't do married men - this was a big taboo for me.'Of course, nobody expected these two people might build something together. But in maybe three months, it became more serious. I understood this is exactly a person I might feel safe with, even if he had a dangerous job.'You never know how many days he might not return home. But I felt safe with him. I just couldn't resist.'Anatoly was born in June 1994. In those days, fathers were not allowed in the labour ward. Litvinenko, pacing the street outside, could only see his son when Marina held him up to the window. They married in October of that year at a local registry office.Litvinenko's ultimate boss had been Putin but they reportedly fell out over corruption within Russia's secret service.In 1999, he was arrested on charges of abusing his office after exposing an alleged plot to assassinate billionaire Boris Berezovsky. Litvinenko spent nine months in a remand centre before being acquitted.He fled on a ferry to Georgia, having slipped a small bribe to a border control officer concealed in his passport. He then called Marina and persuaded her to take a two-week holiday to Marbella, Spain with Anatoly, then six.Unaware of plans to go on the run, she was told to go to Malaga Airport where Berezovsky's private plane took them to Turkey. Marina Litvinenko with husband Alexander before they fled to the UK Alexander Litvinenko holding his baby son Anatoly Marina told The Crime Desk that when Alexei fell ill after a trip to Russia she feared he had fallen victim to another attack by Vladimir PutinIn 2002, Litvinenko was convicted in his absence and handed a three-and-a-half year jail sentence.From the apparent safety of London, Litvinenko wrote a book accusing Putin and the FSB of being behind the 1999 Russian apartment bombings that killed 300 people while they slept and injured more than 1,700.He claimed the atrocities were used as a pretext for the second Russian invasion of Chechnya that helped sweep Putin to power.In the 20 years since Litvinenko's murder, Putin ruthlessness has shown no limit. Other Kremlin critics have died in mysterious circumstances and the rogue nation has carried hostile state attacks on Britain. Neither Marina nor Anatoly can return to birthplace.History will record Putin as a tyrant on a par with Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, who caused the death of tens of millions after the First World War, Marina says.She recently returned from Ukraine where Putin's 2022 full-scale invasion has so far killed almost 500,000 Russian soldiers.Marina adds: 'Putin is not a human. Saying I hate him, it's not enough. I hate what he did to Russia.'He made people agree to kill Ukrainians, their neighbours. Putin built a system where Russian people are afraid to say anything, otherwise they will be put in prison. It's bigger than damage to me.'I'm still Russian and am sorry that we now have a reputation as a very bad country.'Putin needs to be stopped. I feel more Ukrainian, sometimes. Ukraine is fighting. Over there, I stayed in a safe place, but seeing people inside Ukraine is just so important, because they are tired, but they won't give up. Putin's regime cannot be allowed to do what they want to do.'I just love that place. I just need to go there to breathe the air that gives them fight.'If Putin is ever captured for war crimes, Marina would like to see him tried by ordinary Russians rather than at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.A frantic Metropolitan Police operation was launched after Litvinenko fell ill at University College Hospital. It led to 40 premises being briefly sealed off while forensic scientists tested for traces of polonium across the capital.The radiation trail included two hotels, offices, the Abracadabra lap-dancing club and Arsenal's Emirates football stadium, where Lugovoy had watched The Gunners play CSKA Moscow.It also emerged Litvinenko had met Italian intelligence analyst Mario Scaramella at an Itsu sushi restaurant on Piccadilly on the day he was poisoned.Traces were also found on two planes at Heathrow Airport, the Litvinenkos's three-bedroom townhouse at 140 Osier Crescent, Muswell Hill, and around 700 people had to be tested for radioactive poisoning. Thankfully, none of them were seriously ill.In the immediate aftermath of Litvinenko's murder, thousands offered their condolences to the family. There came a point when Marina had to switch off her phone. After some time, she turned it back on. But there was a voicemail message left by one man that caused furious Marina to toss her phone across the room.The soft voice said: 'Hello Marina, this is Andrei Lugovoy. I'm so sorry to hear of Sasha's death. Please do contact me if there's anything I can do.'Lugovoy remains at large and never faced trial. He was pictured in April shaking hands with Putin at a Moscow exhibition. The high-ranking Moscow MP is spearheading an anti-British campaign. Kovtun died of Covid-19 in 2022.Marina is proud to say giving birth to Anatoly, now 32, is her life's 'happiest moment' but she feels guilty for disrupting his childhood, although he sees his father as a 'hero'.It took him longer to settle in London than his parents. But Anatoly marvelled at the many green spaces and Speakers' Corner where citizens could speak freely on any subject without fear of arrest.He studied at City of London School for Boys and now has a successful career.She says of him: 'I think he is everything that navigated me, what is right and wrong.'I have to do everything for our son. And because of him, I never had a chance to collapse, be broken or unhappy.'Now he's a young man, it looks like he wants to take responsibility for me but, of course, I want him to have his own life and be happy. What I realised is we can't give any advice to the young generation. I knew he was traumatised, for sure. It wasn't easy. He didn't show this from the beginning, but I believed I could help him myself.'Anatoly isn't married and Marina teases him: 'I'm already past this age when my mum became a grandmother.'But in her son she sees Litvinenko every day, a person who is clever, thoughtful and deeply cares about fairness.Marina Litvinenko's memoir, A Life in Fragments: Our Love, His Murder, My Resistance is published by Bloomsbury on November 5