Alexander Litvinenko predicted Ukraine would suffer at the hands of Vladimir Putin and the world would not be safe without a free and democratic Russia (Picture: Getty)

Alexander Litvinenko warned that Ukraine would suffer at the hands of ‘hooligan’ Vladimir Putin in prescient words spoken almost two decades before the full-blown invasion.  

The former spy, whose story features in a new ITVX dramatisation, warned that Ukraine and other former Soviet countries would only be ‘100% safe’ if there was a ‘free and stable Russia’.  

In comments that now seem prophetic, he cautioned that the Kremlin was following a ‘bloodthirsty path’ as the country slid into ‘totalitarianism’  

He also described military tensions in 2003, when Russia started building a dam towards the Ukrainian island of Tuzla in the Kerch Strait, as like a ‘scythe against a stone’. 

The Kremlin’s attempt to expand its reach into Ukraine across the channel where the Kerch Strait Bridge now lies was a precursor to Moscow’s illegal annexation of Crimea, the Donbas conflict and full-scale invasion. 

Mr Litvinenko looked beyond Mr Putin to his backers in the KGB, to which they had both once belonged, warning the Russian president: ‘If you climb a tiger’s back you will never be able to get down.’ 

The former intelligence officer died in a London hospital on November 23, 2006 after being poisoned with radioactive polonium 210. 

Alexander Litvinenko in the intensive care unit at University College Hospital in 2006 after being poisoned with polonium 210 (Picture: PA)

His words have taken on new resonance amid the continued risk of Russia’s invasion engulfing other former Soviet bloc countries and speculation that the disastrous campaign will ultimately lead to Mr Putin’s downfall.  

Speaking to a US-based journalist, Mr Litvinenko said: ‘The obvious fact of a close proximity of Ukraine to Russia which has been moving lately towards open fascism cannot but cause concern for Ukraine and its citizens. 

‘They need to understand that even if they join NATO and European Union, what they are so eager to do, they will not be guaranteed 100% protection from aggression and interference in their internal affairs from Russia if Russia continues to develop according to the worst scenario.   

‘In particular if the most vicious fascist elements maintain their presence in Kremlin and the world maintains high economic prices on oil and gas which would continue feeding this regime.  

‘Besides, citizens of Ukraine including its president must understand that the modern world develops fast and nobody can predict what will happen to NATO or European Union in five years.   

‘The only 100% guarantee of safety to Ukraine and other countries of the former socialist camp lies in a free and stable Russia where positions of power are occupied by civilised, educated, predictable people with democratic views rather than “shapna” [riff-raff/hooligans] from the Petersburg’s KGB.’

Vladimir Putin has waged bloody military campaigns in neighbouring countries including Georgia and Ukraine (Picture: Mikhail Metzel/Sputnik/AFP via Getty)

A Ukrainian soldier stands by as a Grad multiple rocket launcher fires rockets at Russian positions in the frontline near Bakhmut (Picture: AP Photo/Libkos)

Mr Litvinenko spoke to Elena Jamber at the VNS newspaper for a report which was used as evidence at the 2016 UK public inquiry into his murder. The hearing found that the hit was carried out by Russian agents Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitri Kovtun, probably with Mr Putin’s approval.  

The story of the 43-year-old’s death is being kept in the public eye by the four-part drama, which can be streamed on the channel from today, where David Tennant plays the former FSB officer. Under the title Litvinenko, the series has recreated the arresting image of the defector lying in a hospital bed after drinking tea poisoned with the radioactive substance.

The Kremlin opponent’s long view suggested powerbrokers may yet account for Mr Putin, who has reacted to humiliating reverses on the battlefield with an aerial bombardment of Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure. 

He said: ‘I would like to warn the President of Russia that he has climbed the back of a tiger called KGB. He will never be able to get down from there.’

Speaking from London, Mr Litvinenko also alleged that the then Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma was implicated in the death of investigative journalist Georgy Gongadze, whose decapitated body was found outside Kyiv after he disappeared in December 2000.

Mr Kuchma has always denied any involvement in the crime. 

Alexander Litvinenko is shown with his book entitled ‘Blowing Up Russia: Terror From Within’ at his home in London (Picture: AP Photo/Alistair Fuller, File)

Giving his view on his former KGB spymasters, Mr Litvinenko said: ‘They do need an idol, a totalitarian system cannot exist without an idol, and Putin is building up a totalitarian system. Stalin made Lenin an idol. 

‘All Soviet people worshipped Lenin, Lenin’s name served as a mighty shield to the bloodthirsty Stalin regime.

‘At present KGB does not have a mighty shield, it needs it in order to follow authoritatively and decisively the bloodthirsty path of totalitarianism.

‘If it happens and their dream comes true, not only Ukraine will suffer but all the former republics of the Soviet Union.’

Mr Litvinenko’s widow, Marina, who calls him Sasha, told Metro.co.uk that the interview reflected a true account of his views. 

‘Sasha knew a lot about the case of the prominent investigative journalist Gongadze and the influence of Russia in Ukraine,’ she said.

‘He knew how difficult it would be for Ukraine to break free from Russian control. Unfortunately, everything that Sasha tried to prevent is happening. 

‘There has been delayed acceptance of what he was talking about and while it has come too late, my personal feeling is that he has been proved right in everything he fought for and died for.  

Marina Litvinenko was told by her husband Alexander not to be silent and she has continued to be a prominent dissenting voice (Picture: Susannah Ireland)

‘The KGB is still hiding in the basements of the former Soviet republics, they did not stop trying to destroy freedom and democracy at the end of the Cold War. The new era of Putin’s regime in the 2000s has been destroying Russia, the former Soviet republics and other European countries in a new kind of war. It’s not just Putin, it’s the whole system that is making Russia and the whole world suffer. If the system was able to turn Putin into a monster, it will find another one.’   

Speculation has continued to raise the possibility of a coup against the Russian president after Ukrainian forces drove Moscow’s troops from the approaches to Kyiv before reclaiming swathes of territory in the east and south. The focal point of the war has shifted to the grinding fight for Bakhmut in the eastern Donetsk region as he appears to be trying to freeze the country into submission.

Mrs Litvinenko, 60, believes the architect of the war may yet be dealt a card that evades the vision of expert analysts.

‘Russia is never predictable,’ she said. ‘You can make very clever models and smart predictions, but sometimes terrible surprises can still happen.’

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Poisoned ex-spy warned that Vladimir Putin was following a ‘bloodthirsty path’ and Ukraine was not safe.