MOSCOW - Russian authorities hope to receive permission as early as this week
to send investigators to Britain to probe the poisoning death of former security
agent Alexander Litvinenko, the chief prosecutor's office said Sunday.
Andrei Lugovoi, a businessmen who was
formerly in the Russian security services and reported by British media to
be a suspect in the radiation poisoning murder of former security agent
Alexander Litvinenko, fires a pistol at a shooting gallery somewhere in
undisclosed location in Russia, in this undated image from the television
broadcast, Sunday, Feb. 4, 2007. [AP]
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Russian prosecutors have asked to
send a team to Britain to make inquiries in the poisoning case, which has
damaged the image of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his government.
The Prosecutor General's Office has received no official response but hopes
for approval soon, possibly Monday or Tuesday, a spokesman told The Associated
Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give
his name to the media.
Meanwhile, Litvinenko's widow, Marina, sent a letter to Putin suggesting
Russia has not cooperated fully with the British investigation.
In the Jan. 31-dated letter provided to AP, Marina Litvinenko told Putin that
"if you do not make every effort to help the British authorities in the search
for those guilty of this terrible crime, I can only suppose that you have
something to hide."
A British Home Office official confirmed that Russian authorities had asked
to come to Britain to investigate the death and police were considering the
request. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not
authorized to speak about the subject.
Litvinenko, a former agent of Russia's Federal Security Service, the main
successor agency of the Soviet-era KGB, fled to Britain and was granted asylum
after accusing his superiors of ordering him to kill Russian tycoon Boris
Berezovsky.
Berezovsky, a former Kremlin insider who became one of Putin's most prominent
and influential critics, now lives in self-imposed exile in Britain. He is
wanted in Russia on money-laundering charges that he claims are politically
motivated.
Russian prosecutors have said they want to question Berezovsky. He said last
month that he would answer questions but wanted his Russian interviewers to be
searched by British police because he feared they might try to kill him.
Alex Goldfarb, an associate of Berezovsky, said the tycoon believes the
Russian request to question more than 100 people in Britain is a "stunt" aimed
to hamper the British probe. But he said Berezovsky is still willing to meet
with Russian officials if provided adequate security.
Litvinenko accused Russian authorities of being behind a series of deadly
bombings of apartment buildings in 1999 that stoked support for a renewed war
with Muslim separatists in Russia's Chechnya region. Once in exile, he continued
his criticism of the Kremlin and Putin.
He died in a London hospital Nov. 23. Doctors said he had been poisoned with
polonium-210, a rare radioactive isotope.
In a deathbed statement, Litvinenko accused Putin of ordering his murder, an
allegation the Kremlin has denied.
British investigators traveled to Moscow in December and sat in as Russian
investigators questioned Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun. The pair met with
Litvinenko in London on Nov. 1, hours before he reported feeling ill, but they
have repeatedly denied any involvement in his death.
Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika said last month that British
investigators want to return to Russia to continue the investigation. He hinted
they would only be permitted to do so if Russian officials were allowed to
investigate in Britain.
Yuri Felshtinsky, co-author with Litvinenko of a book detailing claims that
the Federal Security Service was behind the 1999 apartment bombings, alleged in
an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. on Sunday that the agency
killed Litvinenko.