WORLD / Europe
Suspect: Murdered Russian spied for Britain
(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-05-31 16:03
MOSCOW - Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian agent murdered in
London last year, was working for British intelligence at the time, the
man charged by Britain with his murder alleged on Thursday.
Former Kremlin bodyguard Andrei Lugovoy listens to a question during an
interview at Moscow's Ekho Moskvy (Moscow Echo) radio station in this
February 23, 2007 file photo. [Reuters]
The Litvinenko case has become a major irritant in Russian-British
relations. Thursday's accusation clearly sought to parry British
suggestions of a serious criminal act on British soil by a man with past
links to Russian security services.
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Andrei Lugovoy, whom Russia has refused to extradite to face charges of
killing Litvinenko with radioactive polonium in London, did not say who
he thought murdered Litvinenko but suggested that British intelligence
was the most likely suspect.
"Litvinenko became an agent who left the control of (British) special
services and was killed," Lugovoy, himself a former KGB agent, told a
news conference.
"If not by the (British) intelligence services themselves, then under
their control or with their connivance."
Lugovoy said Litvinenko and his patron, self-exiled billionaire Russian
tycoon Boris Berezovsky, were both working for British secret services.
"In the words of Sasha (Litvinenko) himself, first he was recruited and
afterwards, on his advice, Boris Abramovich (Berezovsky) gave to the
British some (Russian) security council documents and also became an MI6
agent," Lugovoy said.
Lugovoy also said British intelligence had tried to recruit him in order
to provide compromising information on President Vladimir Putin and his
family.
He again dismissed the British charges against him, saying "Britain is
making me a scapegoat."
"A real war is being waged against me and Russia in the press," he added.
Lugovoy, who now runs a private security firm in Moscow, has repeatedly
denied any involvement in Litvinenko's death.
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