Announcement due on Litvinenko poisoning probe

Prosecutors in the UK investigating the case of poisoned Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko will make an announcement today, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.

However, a CPS spokesman would not give any guidance on speculation surrounding the case, saying only: “There is going to be a statement to camera.”

The statement will be made by British Director of Public Prosecutions Ken Macdonald and CPS Head of Counter-Terrorism Susan Hemming.

The CPS and the Foreign Office have denied claims that ministers have been exerting pressure for no action to be taken against two suspects in the case.

The News of the World reported that British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett had argued strongly against charging Moscow-based Andrei Lugovoy and Dmitri Kovtun.

Mr Litvinenko died in hospital in London last November, after being poisoned with the radioactive agent Polonium 210.

The former KGB officer was a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin regime and had been granted political asylum in the UK.

Mr McDonald has insisted politicians had not sought to influence the probe and the Foreign Office denied that Mrs Beckett had made the comments reported.

Last month, a Russian investigator said in an interview that two exiled Kremlin adversaries refused to answer key questions posed by Russian authorities investigating the poisoning of the 43-year-old former security agent.

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 in London, Andrei Mayorov, told the official newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

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

Mr Berezovsky has echoed Mr Litvinenko’s deathbed accusation which blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for his death.

Russia’s chief prosecutor said it was possible that Russians living abroad killed Mr Litvinenko.

Mr Mayorov did not make accusations and referred to Mr Berezovsky and Mr Zakayev as witnesses.

The media in Russia has 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.

Last month also saw the launch of a campaign to try to pressure, shame and force the British and Russian governments into bringing the killers of the ex-KGB spy to justice.

Fearing that investigations are no more than a cover-up, Mr Litvinenko’s widow, Marina, launched the Litvinenko Justice Foundation in central London.

Mrs Litvinenko and her lawyers – along with his friends and supporters - branded his death as nothing short of “state sponsored terrorism” carried out on the orders of Mr Putin.

She said: “It was not just one moment. I saw him dying for one month.

“I cannot say what I feel against the people who would do this because I do not know exactly who did it. I would like to know who did it.

“What I do is just for Sasha and his memory, for his son and for all people who should not expect this.

“I will not rest until Sasha’s killers are brought to justice.”

The Foundation sent a letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair, Home Secretary John Reid and Attorney General Lord Goldsmith stating: “We write to you to seek reassurance that you and your colleagues are doing everything possible to make sure that suspects will stand trial in the UK and will not be shielded from justice by the Russian state.”

The Foundation may also be going to the European Court of Human Rights, to which both Britain and Russia are signatories, and the United Nations.

Tycoon Mr Berezovsky, who was questioned in London where he lives in exile by officials probing the murder, said recently he believes he is still a target.

He claimed: “Russia is becoming less and less dependent on Western opinion.

“They, perhaps, are beginning to accept they are a terrorist country and regime.”

Alex Goldfarb, Mr Litvinenko’s close friend, has claimed that Russia had a lengthening history of wrongdoing that goes unchallenged.

He said: “The reason why Sasha was killed was by and large as a result of previous failings of the Western public who recognise other wrongdoings – from the genocide in Chechnya to the murders of journalists and political figures in Russia.

“There is nothing unusual about Sasha being murdered, there have been many and there will be many more, the thing that was unusual was that it happened here.”