Reuters AlertNet Lite - Russia to send detectives to UK in spy murder probe

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Russia to send detectives to UK in spy murder probe

14 Jan 2007 17:41:57 GMT
Source: Reuters

MOSCOW, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Russian investigators will soon travel to Britain as part of a probe into the poisoning of former security agent Alexander Litvinenko, Russia's Prosecutor-General said on Sunday.

Yuri Chaika said Russia had made an official request to London and added detectives would go in the near future.

"Investigators are preparing to leave for Britain to carry out investigative activities," Chaika said in an interview on state television, RIA news agency reported.

Chaika said Russian detectives would be present at the questioning of witnesses and would like to see documents which were removed from addresses in Britain.

Litvinenko, a former Russian state security officer, died on Nov. 23 in London from radiation poisoning caused by ingesting polonium 210. British police say he was murdered.

In a deathbed statement, Litvinenko accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering his murder -- an allegation dismissed by the Kremlin.

British police have questioned Russian witnesses, including Andrei Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun, in Moscow. Lugovoy and Kovtun met Litvinenko in London on the day he fell ill with radiation poisoning.

Russia's Interfax news agency reported last month that Russian prosecutors had asked Britain to question tycoon Boris Berezovsky as part of the murder investigation.

Berezovsky, once one of the most powerful oligarchs under former President Boris Yeltsin, has become the Kremlin's highest profile enemy. He has been demonised on state television.

Alex Goldfarb, who runs Berezovsky's Foundation for Civil Liberties in New York and was a friend of Litvinenko, said Chaika's announcement was designed to deflect attention.

"This is nothing but a stunt designed to deflect attention from Moscow," Goldfarb told Reuters.

"It's nothing but a smokescreen operation, a PR effort to hide the fact that the two prime suspects are in Moscow being shielded from British investigators by the Russian authorities."

Lugovoy told Reuters last month he was a witness -- not a suspect -- and said he had nothing to do with the poisoning of Litvinenko.

British officials have so far declined to comment on whether they have received requests from Russian authorities to help with their investigations.

(Additional reporting by Mark Trevelyan)

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, editing by Richard Williams; telephone: +7 495 775 12 42, e-mail: guy.faulconbridge@reuters.com)

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Last updated:Sun Jan 14 17:43:29 2007