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UK rebuffs poisoning claims
31/05/2007 22:08 - (SA)
London - Britain rebuffed a claim on Thursday that its secret services were behind the killing of ex-agent Alexander Litvinenko, while an exiled oligarch said it was "clearer than ever" the Kremlin was to blame.
Reacting to accusations by the man Britain wants to charge in the case, ex-KGB man Andrei Lugovoi, the Foreign Office said the former Russian agent's murder was "criminal", not intelligence-linked.
"This is a criminal matter and not an issue about intelligence," said a ministry spokesperson, in an apparent reference to Lugovoi's claim that British special services were involved in the radiation poisoning last November.
Litvinenko's widow described the accusations as "disinformation".
"It is more disinformation and provocation. And it contradicts what the Russians have said before," Marina Litvinenko said in Paris.
Litvinenko "was not an agent of the FSB (Federal Security Service - the KGB's successor) but a high-level specialist in the fight against organised crime. He had no secrets," she added.
Citizens 'at risk'
Lugovoi told a press conference in Moscow that the murder "couldn't have taken place outside the control of Great Britain's special services".
Asked for a response to Lugovoi's specific accusations, the Foreign Office spokesperson said: "We're not getting into that at this stage."
"Our focus is that this is an extradition matter relating to a criminal event.
"A British citizen was killed in London and UK citizens and visitors were put a risk."
Meanwhile, exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky issued a statement reiterating his view that the Kremlin was behind the killing - and also denying he is an MI6 agent.
He said: "Following Andrei Lugovoi's press conference in Moscow this morning, it is now clearer than ever that the Kremlin is behind the murder of Alexander Litvinenko.
"Everything about Mr Lugovoi's words and presentation made it obvious that he is acting on Kremlin instruction."
Alex Goldfarb, a close friend of Litvinenko, also said Lugovoi's accusations showed he was under the control of the Russian authorities.
'Lugovoi had no motive'
Goldfarb said: "I do not take seriously whatever he says as a person being charged with murder.
"Having said that, it is true that he was not a free agent in the murder and is not a free agent now in what he says."
Goldfarb, who remains in contact with Litvinenko's widow Marina, acknowledged that Lugovoi had no motive, financial or personal, to kill Litvinenko.
"But he was acting for somebody else," he said.
"We - that is Marina and I - believe he was acting for the government of Russia. In that sense, he is not speaking for himself but as an agent. It shows again that it is not simply a murder but a cover-up."
Berezovsky also reiterated a call for Lugovoi to face justice in Britain.
- AFP
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