Tycoon Berozovsky 'not ruled out' in Litvinenko death probe

Russian investigators are looking into allegations that self-exiled tycoon Boris Berezovsky could have been involved in the London poisoning death of ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, a top law enforcement official said Friday.

Alexander Bastrykin, newly appointed head of the National Investigation Committee, criticised Scotland Yard for focusing on one suspect – Andrei Lugovoy and ignoring other leads, the ITAR-Tass and Interfax news agencies reported.

“We have other versions,” Bastrykin said. When asked whether Berezovsky could have been involved he said: “We aren’t ruling out such a version.”

Berezovsky, a one-time Kremlin insider turned sharp Kremlin critic who fled to Britain in 2000, has dismissed similar previous Russian accusations as an attempt by President Vladimir Putin’s government to deflect blame for Litvinenko’s death.

Litvinenko died on November 23 in a London hospital after ingesting radioactive polonium-210. In a deathbed statement, he accused Putin of being behind his killing.