Putin 'may have known about spy death plot'

Senior American officials believed Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin could have known about the plan to murder dissident former spy Alexander Litvinenko in London, the latest leaked US diplomatic cables have revealed.

Washington’s senior diplomat in Europe, assistant secretary of state Daniel Fried, challenged suggestions that the killing was the work of “rogue elements” in the Russian security forces, adding that it would have been difficult for the operation to go ahead without Mr Putin’s knowledge, such was his attention to detail.

The documents posted on the WikiLeaks website also describe Russia as a “virtual mafia state” in which the activities of the government and organised crime are indistinguishable, according to The Guardian, which had advance access to the material.

Mr Fried’s comments were made in a conversation in Paris with Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, a senior adviser to then French president Jacques Chirac, on December 7 2006, two weeks after Mr Litvinenko’s death in a London hospital.

Mr Gourdault-Montagne was said to have adopted a “defensive posture” over claims that the Russian government was involved.

“He showed reluctance to see the Kremlin’s hand in the Litvinenko poisoning, preferring to ascribe it to rogue elements,” according to the US record of the conversation.

Mr Fried, however, strongly disagreed. “Fried commented that the short-term trend inside Russia was negative, noting increasing indications that the UK investigation into the murder of Litvinenko could well point to some sort of Russian involvement,” the account noted.

“MGM (Mr Gourdault-Montagne) wondered aloud who might have given the order, but speculated the murder probably involved a settling of accounts between services rather than occurring under direct order from the Kremlin.

“(But) Fried, noting Putin’s attention to detail, questioned whether rogue security elements could operate, in the UK no less, without Putin’s knowledge.”

Meanwhile, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been placed on Interpol’s wanted list over rape allegations made against him in Sweden.

The 39-year-old Australian is a frequent visitor to Britain and has held several high-profile press conferences in London this year.

His London-based lawyer Mark Stephens alleged Swedish authorities are “persecuting” Mr Assange and said Scotland Yard knows full well where he is.

Mr Assange is wanted by Swedish prosecutors on suspicion of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion, allegations which he denies.

He has been under intense scrutiny since WikiLeaks began releasing a selection of more than 250,000 classified US diplomatic cables passed to the whistle-blowing website.

Mr Stephens said: “The security services of a number of countries know exactly where he is. Scotland Yard and the Swedish prosecutor have known where he is and how to get hold of him since he got into the UK.”

If Mr Assange is held in the UK, he will face proceedings to extradite him to Sweden at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court in central London.

The allegations against Mr Assange surfaced in August when two women in Sweden went to police with complaints they had been sexually assaulted.

The Swedish authorities issued an international warrant for his arrest last month and Interpol, the international police co-operation agency, posted a “red notice” on its website on Tuesday stating that Mr Assange was wanted for sex crimes by the public prosecutor in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Mr Stephens claims Sweden’s director of public prosecution, Marianne Ny, has failed to comply with her obligations under Swedish and international law to provide Mr Assange with information about the allegations against him and any evidence to support them.

He said that Mr Assange’s legal team was investigating whether the Swedish case was linked to recent US pledges to prosecute those behind the leaks of the diplomatic cables, adding that the situation was “just bizarre”.

It was announced last night that Amazon.com has stopped hosting the WikiLeaks website, which has moved back to a Swedish provider.

The website had joined Amazon.com’s self-service web servers after internet-based attacks started on Sunday against Bahnhof, its usual Swedish host.