Scotland Yard officers are to fly to Russia to interview three businessmen among the last people to have seen Alexander Litvinenko alive before he was given a huge dose of radioactive poison.
Detectives of the newly-formed counter-terrorism command may arrive in Moscow as early as Monday to question the trio, as well as two other men who may have met Litvinenko during a visit to London. They have already interviewed Boris Berezovsky, the oligarch who employed Litvinenko after they fled to Britain from Russia six years ago.
Berezovsky is convinced that his friend was assassinated on the orders of the Kremlin. ”Alexander was my friend,” he said. ”I don’t want to comment any more until after the police investigation.”
Detectives are also said to have travelled to Washington last week to interview a former KGB agent, Yuri Shvets, who said he had vital information on the case. He told the Observer that Litvinenko had claimed to possess a dossier containing damaging revelations about the Kremlin.
John Reid, the British Home Secretary, said on Sunday the investigation would expand wherever necessary. ”The police will follow wherever this investigation leads inside or outside of Britain.” He declined to comment on motives for the poisoning. ”The worst thing we can do is speculate,” he said. ”This isn’t a game of Cluedo.”
Mario Scaramella, the second man poisoned with polonium, met Litvinenko at a sushi bar in central London on November 1, to warn him that both their lives were in danger. His lawyer, Claudio Rastrelli, said on Italian TV on Sunday night that Scaramella planned to make public all the information Litvinenko had passed on to him in dozens of e-mails, including the names of journalists and politicians allegedly linked to Russian espionage.
Before flying to Moscow, police built up a detailed picture of the movements of the witnesses in the case by following a trail of radioactive traces to hotels, homes and offices in London. By examining immigration records, CCTV images and hotel files — as well as by detecting traces of polonium-210 at locations Litvinenko did not visit — they have established the identities of several men who appear to have come into contact with the killer.
Police are understood to be interested in the movements of at least two visiting Russians whose names have not emerged in public. They are also expected to question a number of people who have protested their innocence in the Russian media and expressed their eagerness to meet officers from the Yard — one is Andrei Lugovoi, another former intelligence officer, who runs a chain of firms.
He saw Litvinenko in London 12 or 13 times this year to discuss business proposals. Lugovoi says they met on October 16, and the next day talked at Itsu, the sushi bar where Litvinenko met Scaramella two weeks later, and where traces of polonium-210 were detected.
After going to Moscow the following day, on a flight by Transaero, a Russian airline, Lugovoi says he returned to London on a BA flight on October 25. He again met Litvinenko at the Sheraton Park Lane hotel. He returned to Moscow on October 28, and flew to London three days later with his wife and son to watch the Arsenal-CSKA Moscow match on November 1. They stayed at the Millennium Hotel, opposite the US embassy in Grosvenor Square, and met Litvinenko there again on November 1. They returned to Moscow along with several Russian acquaintances on November 3.
Subsequent tests have shown that the Transaero aircraft was not contaminated by polonium-210, and nor was the hotel where Lugovoi stayed on his first visit.
Traces have been found on two BA 767s which flew Lugovoi back to London on the 25th and 31st, and at the Sheraton Park Lane and Millennium hotels, where he stayed on his two final visits. Significant quantities are thought to have been found at the Sheraton. Lugovoi stayed there a week before November 1, believed to be the date Litvinenko was poisoned.
Much of the eighth floor was sealed off last week by police who warned anyone approaching that their health could be at risk. Last night the hotel said polonium-210 had been found in five guest rooms, but not in any public area.
Lugovoi’s business partner, Dmitri Kovtun, has said he met Litvinenko on October 16, and again at the Millennium on November 1. ”He was slightly tense, there was a slight sense of paranoia about him,” Kovtun said. Another associate, Vyacheslav Sokolenko, also met Litvinenko at the Millennium. Lugovoi said he believed the killer had attempted to frame all three men. ”We suspect that someone has been trying to frame us … so as to point the finger at us and distract the police … I think someone is just trying to make political capital out of this,” he said.
Questions
Is there evidence that Mr Litvinenko was killed because of his business dealings?
Sunday’s Observer suggested that Litvinenko had plans to blackmail senior Russian figures, using sensitive information obtained from contacts in the FSB, the Russian agency formerly known as the KGB. He is said to have obtained a file which contained damaging allegations relating to the oil company Yukos. Speaking from New York on Sunday, Litvinenko’s friend Alex Goldfarb confirmed that he was aware of a dossier of information on the breakup of Yukos.
Have the police interviewed anyone as a suspect?
Scotland Yard are not believed to have interviewed anyone as a suspect, but they have spoken to Mario Scaramella, Litvinenko’s Italian contact, who last week tested positive for polonium 210. He has consistently denied being a suspect. The Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky has also helped with inquiries.
How is Vladimir Putin’s government reacting?
The Russians appear rattled by the furore. At a summit in Helsinki, Putin responded directly to a deathbed statement made by Litvinenko in which he pointed the finger at Putin. The Russian president asked why the letter was not published while Litvinenko was alive and could be questioned about the damning allegations it contained.
If a suspect was in Russia, could he or she be extradited?
Britain and Russia recently signed a memorandum of understanding enabling prosecutors to collaborate directly when drawing up extradition requests.
Repeated requests to extradite Russians from Britain have been refused by the British courts. However, those requests have related to political cases, such as Chechen separatist spokesperson Akhmed Zakayev, rather than a murder case where there would be greater pressure on the Russian authorities to cooperate. – Guardian Unlimited Â