The man charged by Britain with murdering former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko denied involvement Thursday, saying British intelligence and a self-exiled Russian multi-millionaire were far more likely suspects.
In comments likely to deepen a Russian-British feud reminiscent of Cold War spy scandals, Britain's chief suspect Andrei Lugovoy rejected Litvinenko's deathbed charge the Kremlin had ordered his poisoning with highly radioactive Polonium 210.
At a packed news conference in Moscow, Lugovoy said he suspected British intelligence, the mafia and Boris Berezovsky, a multi-millionaire Kremlin critic who fled Russia for London, could have been involved in Litvinenko's murder.
"The main role was played by British secret services and their agent Berezovsky," a confident and combative Lugovoy, himself a former KGB agent, told a news conference aired live on state television.
"The poisoning of Litvinenko could not have been but under the control of British secret services," he said. Asked whether he had firm proof of British intelligence involvement in the murder, Lugovoy replied: "Yes".
But Britain hit back by saying its request for Lugovoy's extradition from Russia - which Moscow said it could not meet - had nothing to do with British intelligence.
"This is a criminal matter and is not an issue about intelligence," a Foreign Office spokesman said. "A British citizen was killed in London and UK citizens and visitors were put at risk."
Looking tanned and dressed in a dapper pink shirt, Lugovoy said the Kremlin's enemies and the Western press were portraying him as a "Russian James Bond" in a campaign to tarnish Russia's image.
Private security guards were protecting Lugovoy at the news conference and sniffer dogs checked the room for weapons or explosives before he entered.
Lugovoy portrayed a shadowy world of secret codes, hard drinking and meetings with British spies plotting to compromise Putin.
"There was an open attempt to recruit me as an agent of British secret services," he said. "The British basically asked me to start collecting any compromising material on President Vladimir Putin and members of his family."
(China Daily via agencies June 1, 2007)
