Russian exiles 'refused to answer poisoned-spy questions'

Two exiled Kremlin adversaries refused to answer key questions posed by Russian authorities probing the poisoning death of former security agent Alexander Litvinenko, a Russia investigator said in an interview published today.

Tycoon Boris Berezovsky and Chechen rebel envoy Akhmed Zakayev answered fewer than half the questions they were asked in lengthy sessions, the head of a team of Russian investigators who interviewed them last month in London, Andrei Mayorov, told the official newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

“In a word, they did not answer the most key questions,” said Mr Mayorov.

His comments were part of tit-for-tat accusations and insinuations over the death of Mr Litvinenko, a Kremlin critic and associate of Mr Berezovsky who died in a London hospital in November following a dose of radioactive polonium-210.

Mr Berezovsky has echoed Mr Litvinenko’s deathbed accusation which blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for his death. Russia’s chief prosecutor has said it was possible that Russians living abroad killed Mr Litvinenko, and pro-Kremlin lawmakers and state-controlled media have said Mr Berezovsky could have been behind his death.

Mr Mayorov made no accusations and referred to Mr Berezovsky and Mr Zakayev as witnesses. But he told Rossiyskaya Gazeta that Mr Berezovsky declined to answer questions about his financial and business ties to Mr Litvinenko, adding that “Litvinenko, especially recently, in many ways depended on (Berezovsky)”.

Russian media have speculated that a falling-out between Mr Berezovsky and Mr Litvinenko could have led to his death. Some have alleged that Mr Berezovsky had reduced an allowance they claimed he was paying Mr Litvinenko, forcing him to find other sources of revenue that could have got him into trouble.

Mr Mayorov said Mr Berezovsky also refused to talk about how Mr Litvinenko had been making a living recently, or about “certain people” he said Russian investigators believe met Mr Litvinenko shortly before his poisoning.

“All this important information, which doubtless would help the investigation, we could have received from Berezovsky and Zakayev, who called themselves the deceased’s best friends. But they said nothing,” said Mr Mayorov.

Later in the interview, he again suggested that financial ties between Litvinenko and Berezovsky could have led to the poisoning, saying that some of the theories about the case are interconnected.

“This is precisely why Berezovsky was asked questions about his financial dealings with Litvinenko.”

One of the wealthiest of the Russian tycoons who amassed fortunes in shadowy privatisation deals in the 1990s, Mr Berezovsky was an influential Kremlin insider but fell out with President Putin in 2000 and fled to England to avoid prosecution on what he said were politically motivated charges of financial misdeeds.

After the questioning, Mr Berezovsky said he was asked about Mr Litvinenko’s financial status but also suggested that the Russian investigators were seeking information about his own finances. Mr Mayorov said all the questions to Mr Berezovsky – more than 100 – “involved exclusively the death of Litvinenko”.

Mr Mayorov said Mr Berezovsky and Mr Zakayev were questioned simultaneously and that he was present for the questioning of Mr Zakayev.

British authorities have said they conducted the interviews on behalf of Russian investigators – the same format as when British investigators came to Moscow for their probe in December.

Among those questioned by British authorities were Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun, two Russians with military and security backgrounds who met Mr Litvinenko in London on the day he said he fell ill. British authorities have filed no charges.