Poisoning: British police request help from Moscow

British police investigating the poisoning death of a former KGB agent have officially requested assistance from their Russian counterparts, prosecutors said, as officers arrived in Moscow amid rising diplomatic tensions.

Meanwhile, lawyers for an imprisoned security officer, Mikhail Trepashkin, said he has key evidence in the case. They appealed to the British officers to collect testimony from him as soon as possible, saying his life is in danger.

Alexander Litvinenko, 43, died on November 23 in London after ingesting radioactive polonium-210.

In a deathbed accusation, he blamed Russian president Vladimir Putin for the poisoning. The Kremlin has vehemently denied the accusations.

Trepashkin, who is serving a four-year sentence for revealing state secrets, reportedly said in a letter from prison that he had warned Mr Litvinenko several years ago about a government-sponsored death squad that intended to kill him and other Kremlin opponents.

Trepashkin said he had information that “could shed light on the killing” of Litvinenko, his lawyer Yelena Liptser said yesterday.

“If the authorities don’t allow him to do that, that would mean they are trying to hide something,” he added.

In letter texts released by his supporters, Trepashkin said an officer of the federal security service, a KGB-successor agency known by the acronym FSB, offered him a chance in 2002 to join a group targeting Litvinenko, which he rejected.

Trepashkin quoted the officer as saying that ”Litvinenko won’t escape Trotsky’s ice pick”, referring to the 1940 murder of Leon Trotsky by a Soviet agent.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned yesterday that continued suggestions of Russian official involvement in Litvinenko’s death could damage relations with Britain.

In televised comments, Mr Lavrov said he had spoken with British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett “about the necessity to avoid any kind of politicisation of this question, this tragedy – the death of person is always a tragedy – and the necessity to avoid speculation on this subject”.

“If the British have questions, then they should be sent via the law-enforcement agencies, between which there are contacts,” he said.

Moscow’s prosecutor-general’s office said it has agreed to help Scotland Yard officers in the investigation.

British law-enforcement authorities earlier said a team of nine officers would travel to Moscow to interview several people, including Andrei Lugovoi, another former agent who met Litvinenko on November 1, the day he fell ill. FBI agents have also been involved in the probe.

A business associate of Lugovoi, Vyacheslav Sokolenko, said yesterday that Lugovoi could not be reached pending his questioning by the British investigators.

Lavrov denied reports saying Russian diplomats had been instructed to lodge a protest with British authorities over the publication of Litvinenko’s deathbed accusations.

Also yesterday, Russian newspaper Kommersant quoted Litvinenko’s father as saying he had warned his son that his life was in danger.

“He listened to me but, unfortunately, continued to do what he was doing, exposing his former colleagues,” Walter Litvinenko said, according to the newspaper.

“He told me: ’What do you mean, papa? I’m a British citizen. They would never dare to touch me.'"