'Litvinenko poisoned himself'

2008-12-02 21:12

Moscow - The man accused of murdering Alexander Litvinenko said on Tuesday that the former Russian spy may have accidentally poisoned himself with the radioactive substance polonium that killed him.

The comments by Andrei Lugovoi, who has been charged by Britain with the murder of Litvinenko in London in 2006, were the latest in a series of media attempts by the suspect to defend his claims of innocence.

"We can consider that one of the main theories is that Litvinenko was playing dangerously with polonium, that it is possible he had in his possession," Lugovoi said, according to the RIA Novosti agency.

"Litvinenko had an adventurous nature and was always looking to live dangerously.

"We need to take into account his real hate of the Russian authorities, the secret services, in fact everything that is Russian."

The comments also marked a change from Lugovoi's previous assertion that the murder could have been carried out by the British intelligence in a clandestine bid to embarrass Moscow.

Lugovoi, a former KGB agent and current member of the Russian parliament for the far-right Liberal Democrat Party, is a colourful figure who has not been shy of media appearances despite the charges against him.

The latest comments were made in a webcast interview with the Internet website of the mass-selling populist Russian weekly Argumenti i Fakti.

Lugovoi told a British newspaper last month that he was considering sending his friend, Dmitry Kovtun, who was one of the last people to meet Litvinenko before he fell ill, to meet detectives in Britain.

Britain wants Russia to extradite Lugovoi to face charges, but Russia has refused and the whole case has increased tensions between the two countries.

Litvinenko, a fierce Kremlin critic, died in a London hospital on November 23 2006, three weeks after being poisoned with radioactive substance polonium 210 while taking tea at a hotel in the capital's Mayfair district.

- AFP