London Theater to Stage Play About Ex-FSB Agent Litvinenko Death - Reports

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - A play based on the book about the alleged poisoning of former Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officer Alexander Litvinenko will be staged at the Old Vic in London, the Guardian reported on Sunday.

The play written by Lucy Prebble is based on the book dubbed A Very Expensive Poison by journalist Luke Harding, the Guardian reported.

The theater is expected to officially announce the premiere next week.

Litvinenko has moved to the United Kingdom in 2000. Six years later he was naturalized, however, the very same year, he began to feel ill. Litvinenko died in late November 2006, with UK doctors explaining his death by radiation poisoning.

Thrilled — the amazing and talented @lucyprebblish is to adapt my book A Very Expensive #Poison for the stage. World premiere in 2019 at the @oldvictheatre in London, as part of OV's 200th anniversary season https://t.co/tXrIwndpks #litvinenko #russia

— Luke Harding (@lukeharding1968) April 29, 2018

​READ MORE: Litvinenko's Father Gives Name of His Son's Murderer

According to a report by Robert Owen, the chairman of the UK inquiry into the death of Litvinenko, Russian authorities were responsible for taking his life in 2006. The report concluded that Litvinenko's former colleagues Dmitry Kovtun and Andrey Lugovoy deliberately poisoned him with polonium-210.

The investigation, however, failed to prove that the polonium-210, allegedly used to poison the former intelligence officer came from Russia.

READ MORE: No Sign of Plant Toxins in Russian Businessman Who Died in UK in 2012

The Russian Foreign Ministry refuted allegations about Litvinenko's murder and criticized the UK inquiry as politicized and lacking transparency, saying that it would have an adverse effect on relations between the two nations.