Russia 'has no information' on alleged smuggling by Litvinenko

A top Kremlin anti-terror official said that Russian security agents had no information about allegations that poisoned ex-KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko was involved in smuggling radioactive materials, a Russian news agency reported today.

“It’s no great secret that we, along with our American and European partners, have been following several incidents of attempted smuggling of radioactive materials,” Anatoly Safonov was quoted by RIA-Novosti as saying.

However, these investigations were under well before Litvinenko’s poisoning death, he said.

“These are incidents from a different time and from different substances.”

No further details were given and Safonov could be not immediately located for comment.

Safonov, who is President Vladimir Putin’s envoy for anti-terrorism, appeared to responding to British and Russian media reports that Litvinenko had told an Italian security expert that he had organised the smuggling of nuclear material for his former employers at the Federal Security Service.