she was a friend of litvinenko.s later, litvinenko himself was poisoned with polonium 210. duma leader zhirinovsky certainly didn't shed any tears when that happened but laughs off the notion that the russian state was connected in any way. for one simple reason. he thinks russian agents would have done a better job. >> translator: i'm surprised that the uk special services and the uk court accuses russia and lugovoi that with a bag of polonium they came to london and were just throwing it around. >> reporter: it just doesn't make sense to a lot of people that russia didn't kill him. >> translator: for a hundred years, the russian special services have been using the kind of substances for killing people that you never will be able to recognize. why do we have to go into some kind of a bar and put it in someone's tea cup and everyone's laughing at it? i mean, the state cannot be involved in that. >> reporter: litvinenko's friend paul joyal, who believes he was the target of a botched assassination, agrees that in so

the problem we have here, which is the same problem as with the litvinenko case and the poisoning, is that. so there is a legal impasse. given that, then, explain the significance of holding the trail anyway, in absentia. well, the significance to the victims, the families of the victims, i should say, and to the criminal justice system victims, i should say, and to the criminaljustice system as a whole is that you can still hold people accountable. you can still show that the evidence is there. that evidence can be properly tested, a verdict can be properly tested, a verdict can be properly tested, a verdict can be returned, and the public can see that a fair process was followed. and if the suspects and the state that protects them doesn't engage in that process, then they can still be held accountable. u nfortu nately can still be held accountable. unfortunately they can't be punished. yes, that is the big problem here, isn't it? is there... what kind of pressure might be put behind the scenes on the russians to try to yield on this? although it is probably likely it is not going t