"Litvinenko, 43, was an outspoken critic of Mr Putin.Mr Lugovoy, who represents the ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party of Russia in the Russian Parliament, called the British inquiry "a pathetic attempt by London to use a skeleton in the closet for the sake of its political ambitions".Andrei Lugovoi, one of two Russians named on Thursday by a judge led-British inquiry as the killers of Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko, said the accusations against him were hydraulic system seals for sale "absurd", the Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.The inquiry into the 2006 killing in London concluded that President Vladimir Putin probably approved a Russian intelligence operation to murder ex-KGB agent Litvinenko.It said his poisoners were former KGB bodyguard turned lawmaker Lugovoi and fellow Russian Dmitry Kovtun.. The results of the inquiry published today are yet more proof of London’s anti-Russian stance, its blinkered thinking and  unwillingness to establish the true cause of Litvinenko’s death."

The accusations brought against me are absurd," he said.He said the findings of the inquiry published on Thursday continued Britain’s "anti-Russian hysteria" which he said began after "the events in Ukraine in 2014".."As we expected, there was no sensation. The panel, which was set up in 1998, comprises experts from the CBI and other Central agencies. The MDMA, running on a skeleton staff, was set up on the recommendation of retired judge Milap Chand Jain, whose own inquiry into the conspiracy theory was called off in 1998. Jain wanted the MDMA to look into several areas he could not investigate.Earlier, MDMA had sought permission from the Sri Lankan authorities to question the alleged financier of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Selvarasa Pathmanathan."

Sources said the application to the MHA was sent in time and the clarifications sought have also been furnished to the MHA. The Former Prime Minister was assassinated on May 21, 1991, when a LTTE suicide bomber blew herself up at an election rally in Tamil Nadu. The unit was set up 17 years ago but is yet to wrap up its probe into the wider conspiracy angle in the assassination. He had been arrested in a Southeast Asian country and was brought to Sri Lanka, they said. Sources in the CBI said, "Since its inception as a dedicated unit probing the high-profile political assassination, it is for the first time that the term of the MDMA, which came to end on May 31, 2015, has still not been formally extended.