Kremlin poison case suspect to run for office

THE sole suspect in the radiation poisoning death of Kremlin foe Alexander Litvinenko has been nominated to run for parliament on a pro-Kremlin ultra-nationalist party’s ticket, its leader said yesterday.

Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky said that Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB officer whom Britain has identified as the main suspect in last year’s murder in London of Litvinenko, would be number two on the party’s list in December’s parliamentary elections, the Interfax news agency reported.

Mr Zhirinovsky, a flamboyant politician who heeds Kremlin’s orders, dismissed British charges against Mr Lugovoi as “an attempt to organise provocations against our citizens,” Interfax said.