LONDON — It has consumed more than eight years of maneuvering, obstruction and a widow’s dogged legal campaign, fought often on a shoestring. But finally, on Tuesday, a public inquiry is set to begin its quest for an answer to the question that has driven the whole process: Why did Alexander V. Litvinenko have to die?
On Nov. 1, 2006, Mr. Litvinenko, a former officer of the Soviet K.G.B. in self-exile in London and a vocal critic of President Vladimir V. Putin, sipped tea from a poisoned pot, took sick and died 22 days later. Only after his death did British scientists confirm that the poison was Polonium 210, a rare isotope manufactured mostly in Russia.
From his deathbed, Mr. Litvinenko accused Mr. Putin of responsibility for ordering his murder, a charge the Kremlin leader has always denied. But when Robert Owen, an eminent British judge, opens the inquiry on Tuesday, it will be to start months of hearings that will paint a detailed canvas of Mr. Litvinenko’s life and death, and try to determine where responsibility lies among a flamboyant cast of potential players ranging from Russian state agencies to British spies to Spanish mobsters.
For what was almost a perfect crime, the inquiry will offer an imperfect mirror. Reflecting the insistence of British officials that disclosure of some testimony would harm national security, many issues will be addressed in secret, and even parts of the judge’s final report will not publicly allude to some findings.
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Six years later, at about the same time as her husband was sipping polonium-laced tea, Ms. Litvinenko was home preparing his favorite chicken dish to celebrate the anniversary of their arrival in Britain.
Just weeks earlier, the family had secured British citizenship, and Mr. Litvinenko had told his son that the British crown “protects us, guards us.” But his wife could hardly have known that her life henceforth would be devoted to trying to illuminate the dark saga of her husband’s death.
“This kind of activity is like a marathon,” she said. “You never know when you will need to be strong.”
A version of this article appears in print on January 25, 2015, on page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: After Long Legal Fight, Inquest Is Set to Begin in Death of Putin Critic. Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe
