VARIOUS: British police investigating death of Alexander Litvinenko arrive in Moscow.
Record ID:
1539810
VARIOUS: British police investigating death of Alexander Litvinenko arrive in Moscow.
- Title: VARIOUS: British police investigating death of Alexander Litvinenko arrive in Moscow.
- Date: 5th December 2006
- Summary: (W4)NIZHNI TAGIL, RUSSIA(FILE )(REUTERS-ACCESS ALL) EXTERIOR OF PRISON BARBWIRE ON PRISON FENCE PRISONERS IN PRISON YARD
- Embargoed: 20th December 2006 11:39
- Keywords:
- Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVA36Y36P6UJ4GK2S0PC0N25IS5D
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3
- Story Text: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday (December 4) the Litvinenko affair was damaging ties with Britain, which sent detectives to Moscow as part of their investigation into the ex-KGB spy's death by poisoning.
A small group of British police officers arrived at the Domodedovo airport, to begin widening their probe into the death of Alexander Litvinenko, who succumbed in a London hospital on Nov. 23 to a lethal dose of radioactive Polonium 210.
Lavrov said insinuations in Britain of high-level Russian involvement in Litvinenko's death were "unacceptable", adding: "It is of course damaging our relations."
Both Russia and Britain believe Litvinenko's death should not be politicised, Lavrov added. "If there are any questions, they should be put through law enforcement agencies," Interfax quoted him as saying.
British Home Secretary (Interior Minister) John Reid said during a visit to Brussels that Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett had been in touch with Moscow "and they have assured us we'll get all the cooperation necessary".
Asked how long the British police would spend in Russia, a British embassy spokesman said: "They'll stay as long as it takes."
Two new London locations were caught up in the probe on Monday, the Parkes Hotel in upmarket Knightsbridge and one Cavendish Place.
The Sunday Times newspaper said the Parkes Hotel was where Lugovoy stayed when he visited London on his first of three trips in October.
Associates of Litvinenko have alleged either Kremlin involvement in his killing or that rogue elements in Russia's state security service were responsible.
Before he died Litvinenko, a former Russian state security service agent who became one of President Vladimir Putin's sharpest critics in the London-based Russian emigre community, accused Putin of ordering his death.
The Kremlin has strongly denied any part in the killing, and Kremlin opponents also find the theory of Putin's involvement highly improbable, noting such a high-profile killing on foreign soil could only damage him.
The Scotland Yard detectives are likely to try to interview Russian citizens who met Litvinenko at London's Millennium Hotel on Nov. 1, the day he fell ill.
Andrei Lugovoy, a former KGB agent, says he and businessman Dmitry Kovtun met Litvinenko that day at the hotel. But Lugovoy, now back in Moscow, says they discussed a business opportunity and denies anything to do with an attempt on Litvinenko's life.
Alex Goldfarb, a London-based friend of Litvinenko, said the British investigators should insist on also seeing another ex-KGB agent, Mikhail Trepashkin, who had "substantive information" of use to them.
Trepashkin, serving a four-year sentence in an Urals prison for divulging state secrets, alleged in a letter last Friday that the FSB, the Russian state security service, had created a hit squad to kill Litvinenko and other enemies of the Kremlin. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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