Litvinenko poisoning: Russian hits out at 'lies'

The man reported to be a suspect in the murder of a former Russian agent in London hit out today at “lies, provocation and government propaganda”, denying any role in the radiation poisoning death of Alexander Litvinenko.

Andrei Lugovoi said he viewed the reports in Britain’s Guardian newspaper and Sky News that he is a suspect in the murder as an attempt by the British authorities to make up for the lack of evidence against him.

"This is all lies, provocation and government propaganda by the United Kingdom," he said.

"They are trying to make up for their poor hand."

It was reported on Friday that British prosecutors believe they have enough evidence to charge Lugovoi.

Investigators have identified the teapot believed to have contained the radioactive tea, which eventually killed Litvinenko in November, reports said, citing unnamed Scotland Yard officials.

The reports cap a week of media speculation on the direction of the British investigation into the death.

It was reported on Friday that police were focusing on Lugovoi and had sufficient evidence for prosecutors to decide whether to file charges against him, citing unnamed government officials.

Scotland Yard’s investigation has centred on Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun, two Russian ex-KGB officers who were present at the Millennium Hotel in London when Litvinenko fell ill on November 1 after contamination from a rare, radioactive substance.

Litvinenko, 43, died on November 23.

The former agent fled to Britain after leaving Russia and was granted asylum. In exile, he became a vocal opponent of Russian president Vladimir Putin, accusing him in a deathbed statement of masterminding his death.

Russian officials have denied any involvement in his murder.

ABC News said the teapot, found at the Millennium Hotel, remained in use for several weeks after the poisoning, adding that its radiation readings were extremely high.

Of the 13 people who tested positive for contamination with Polonium-210 since Litvinenko was poisoned, eight worked at the hotel. Two others who tested positive for the rare radioactive material also visited the hotel’s bar.

The politically charged case has driven relations between London and Moscow to post-Cold War lows.

In a reminder of the tensions, the Russian Prosecutor General’s office today reaffirmed that Russia would not extradite Lugovoi to Britain.

“A Russian citizen cannot be extradited to another country under the Russian Constitution,” Natalia Fyodorova, a spokeswoman for Prosecutor-General’s office, said.

She added that Russia would not put him on trial itself if Britain filed charges against Lugovoi, only if the Russian investigators looking into Litvinenko’s murder decided to prosecute him.

In contrast to Britain, Russia has turned its sights to exiled opponents of the Kremlin as it investigates Litvinenko’s murder, amid accusations in some quarters that Moscow is trying to throw the inquiry off the trail to Russia.

British police last week asked Russia for further assistance in the case but Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika indicated that Scotland Yard would only be able to send detectives back to Moscow after a Russian investigative team visits London, where they want to interview more than 100 people.

Top of the interview list for the Russian investigators is exiled tycoon Boris Berezovsky, a prominent opponent of Putin who has political asylum in Britain and has accused the Russian authorities of being behind the slow and agonising death of Litvinenko.

Scotland Yard has received only limited co-operation from Russia.

The British detectives who travelled to Moscow in December were not allowed to carry out their own interviews with Kovtun and Lugovoi, who were in a hospital undergoing checks for radiation poisoning. Instead they were only able to sit in on questioning of the two Moscow-based businessmen by Russian prosecutors.

In an article published Friday in the Russian daily Kommersant, British Ambassador Anthony Brenton urged full co-operation by Russia.

“The British police will be relying on continued co-operation from the Russian authorities in this complex case, in order to complete their investigation properly. It is strongly in the future interests of both our countries that they are able to do so,” he said.

“The British authorities view the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, a British citizen in London, as an extremely serious matter. Furthermore the manner of his death had potentially serious consequences for the health of many British citizens and visitors to our capital,” added Brenton.

Police said today no file had been sent to prosecutors and refused to speculate when they would likely submit the case. The Crown Prosecution Service must review evidence before police lay charges against an individual.