'I wasn't ticklish. It felt good': How boy, five, described tummy kiss that sparked Putin paedophile claims - as Russian president said 'I wanted to stroke him like a kitten' 

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It was the uncomfortable image that ended with a Russian dissident being poisoned with a cup of tea laced with polonium in a London hotel, claims an explosive new report.

Vladimir Putin knelt in Moscow’s Red Square and kissed the tummy of a five-year-old boy.

Struck by the bizarre encounter with the Kremlin chief, Nikita Konkin, the boy in the photo said: 'I wasn't ticklish at all. I felt something good.' 

Claims: Deceased Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko accused Vladimir Putin of being a paedophile after he was pictured kissing the stomach of five-year-old boy Nikita Konkin (pictured in 2006)

Elated: Nikita (pictured in 2015) was so proud of the encounter that he refused to wash the part of his stomach kissed by the president

At the time it seemed nothing more than a slightly ill-judged publicity stunt.

But months later it would be the catalyst for a bizarre sequence of events that led to exiled former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko and Putin enemy allegedly signing his death warrant by accusing his nemesis of being a paedophile.

Today ten years on from their awkward encounter in Red Square Nikita looks back on it fondly.

At the time he had been on a day trip with his Kolomensk kindergarten when his grandmother, Valentina, had shoved him to the front of a group of crowded boys and in front of the president.

Valentina said he was so star struck from that kiss, Nikita refused to wash his stomach afterwards.

Recalling the moment his gran shouted, ‘look, the president is coming!’, he said: 'I turned, he was walking with bodyguards. He waved his hand to me as if he called me.

'I went to him. Putin asked who I am - and then kissed me. That was it. I was surprised a lot.'

'I just liked him and he liked me very much... I want to be president myself.'

Valentina went on: 'Everyone around us was so excited, starting to wave their hands, and screaming... As if they saw an alien.'

'Afterwards Nikita even refused to have a shower. I suggested to him I could put a plaster on that place [where he was kissed] but my grandson even got scared. 

'He agreed to bathe only if we go to the village river. We must go. We're actually getting ready to go right now.'

Meeting: Putin (right) said after the incident with Nikita (centre) that he 'wanted to stroke him like a kitten and it came out in this gesture'

Shock: Nikita (pictured with his father in 2012) told of how Putin said he was surprised when Putin waved him over during a walkabout at the Kremlin

She said the President was very highly regarded in their family, who often watch him on TV.

She said Nikita even rehearsed and recited his sentences and speeches to the family.

Putin said after the incident that he 'wanted to stroke him like a kitten and it came out in this gesture. There is nothing behind it'.

He added: 'He seemed to me very independent, sure of himself and at the same time defenceless so to speak, an innocent boy and a very nice little boy.'

But little did anyone know at that time the incident would allegedly lead to Litvinenko’s death.

Months after that picture in 2006, Litvinenko wrote a blog alleging that before he became president, Putin was filmed abusing children in a flat where another top politician had a threesome with prostitutes.

The report into the dissident death claimed Mr Putin was a 'paedophile', adding that videos existed of him 'making sex with some underage boys'.  

Litvinenko said that Mr Putin destroyed the footage, which allegedly saw him sent away from Russia for a while when he was a student, after becoming head of the FSB secret service.

Sir Robert quotes Litvinenko's blog in response to the Kremlin incident, which made the inflammatory allegations in broken English.

Litvinenko wrote: 'The world public is shocked. Nobody can understand why the Russian president did such a strange thing as kissing the stomach of an unfamiliar small boy.'

Surprise: Nikita (pictured in 2012) was standing in the Red Square with a group of children from the Kolomensk kindergarten when his grandmother Valentina yelled: 'Look, the president's coming!'

The 2006 incident in Red Square has been shrouded in scandal but it remained special for Nikita (pictured in 2014) who once said: 'I just liked him and he liked me very much... I want to be president myself'

He claimed that Putin was not accepted into Russia's foreign intelligence, and given a junior position in the KGB instead, because investigations would bring up the fact that he was a paedophile.

He added: 'Many years later, when Putin became the FSB director and was preparing for the presidency, he began to seek and destroy any compromising materials collected against him.

'Among other things, Putin found videotapes in the FSB Internal Security directorate, which showed him making sex with some underage boys.'

On November 1 of the same year, Litvinenko would meet former KGB agents Dmitry Kovtun and Andrei Lugovoy at a hotel in central London, where they had tea.

The exiled Russian dissident spent the evening vomiting. It would later be revealed the tea was laced with radioactive polonium.

It would take him another three weeks to die – enough time to name the men he believed were his assassins, and Putin as the man pulling the strings in the background.

For years, it was thought his killing was due to his outspoken criticism of the Kremlin, and accusations which included accusing the Russian secret service of being behind the Moscow theatre attack.

But this is the first time the blog and its very particular accusation has come to light as a possible final straw.

Claims: Litvinenko (pictured) also claimed in an explosive blog post that Putin was filmed having sex with underage boys

Killer: Sir Robert's inquiry named Andrei Lugovoi, left, and Dmitri Kovtun, right, as the two men responsible for carrying out the orders to kill Litvinenko by slipping radioactive polonium into a teapot 

President: Mr Putin is alleged to have ordered Litvinenko's killing after the ex-spy fled Russia became one of his fiercest critics

The wild claim is recorded in Sir Robert Owen's inquiry report as part of a long list of allegations made by the assassinated spy against Mr Putin after he fled Russia and settled in Britain.

Sir Robert wrote in his report: 'It hardly needs saying that the allegations made by Mr Litvinenko against President Putin in this article were of the most serious nature. Could they have had any connection with his death?'

Sir Robert concluded that Mr Putin had 'probably' approved the dissident's assassination himself, along with the current head of the FSB. Giving evidence to the inquiry last year, Litvinenko's widow Marina said she had 'no idea' whether or not the paedophile claims were true. 

But as the war of words escalated, a spokesman for Putin said 'such a quasi-investigation such as the one being talked about today undoubtedly is able only to still further poison the atmosphere of our bilateral relations'.