The man charged by Britain with murdering former Russian agent
Alexander Litvinenko denied involvement Thursday, saying British
intelligence and a self-exiled Russian multi-millionaire were far
more likely suspects.
In comments likely to deepen a Russian-British feud reminiscent
of Cold War spy scandals, Britain's chief suspect Andrei Lugovoy
rejected Litvinenko's deathbed charge the Kremlin had ordered his
poisoning with highly radioactive Polonium 210.
At a packed news conference in Moscow, Lugovoy said he suspected
British intelligence, the mafia and Boris Berezovsky, a
multi-millionaire Kremlin critic who fled Russia for London, could
have been involved in Litvinenko's murder.
"The main role was played by British secret services and their
agent Berezovsky," a confident and combative Lugovoy, himself a
former KGB agent, told a news conference aired live on state
television.
"The poisoning of Litvinenko could not have been but under the
control of British secret services," he said. Asked whether he had
firm proof of British intelligence involvement in the murder,
Lugovoy replied: "Yes".
But Britain hit back by saying its request for Lugovoy's
extradition from Russia - which Moscow said it could not meet - had
nothing to do with British intelligence.
"This is a criminal matter and is not an issue about
intelligence," a Foreign Office spokesman said. "A British citizen
was killed in London and UK citizens and visitors were put at
risk."
Looking tanned and dressed in a dapper pink shirt, Lugovoy said
the Kremlin's enemies and the Western press were portraying him as
a "Russian James Bond" in a campaign to tarnish Russia's image.
Private security guards were protecting Lugovoy at the news
conference and sniffer dogs checked the room for weapons or
explosives before he entered.
Lugovoy portrayed a shadowy world of secret codes, hard drinking
and meetings with British spies plotting to compromise Putin.
"There was an open attempt to recruit me as an agent of British
secret services," he said. "The British basically asked me to start
collecting any compromising material on President Vladimir Putin
and members of his family."
(China Daily via agencies June 1, 2007)
