The Kremlin sought to turn the tables on Britain yesterday over the killing of Alexander Litvinenko, the dissident former security officer.

The Prosecutor-General’s Office accused the Crown Prosecution Service of blocking a Russian inquiry into the death by repeatedly ignoring urgent requests for information.

It complained to Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, that her officials had done nothing to resolve the dispute despite Russian pleas to intervene with the CPS. Details of the complaint were released as Russia said that it had received a fresh request from the CPS for help with the case.

The CPS has accused Andrei Lugovoy, a former KGB officer, of murdering Litvinenko with radioactive polonium210 in London. President Putin has dismissed the British case as “stupid” and refused to extradite Mr Lugovoy, citing a constitutional ban. The controversy has plunged relations between London and Moscow to their worst level since the Cold War. Britain expelled four Russian diplomats in July, prompting Moscow to order four British envoys to leave.

The Prosecutor-General’s Office said in a statement that it had written to the Home Secretary acknowledging Britain’s latest request for assistance. It added that Russia had been waiting ten months for Britain to answer its requests for information concerning Litvinenko.

“Russia notified that the requests are urgent. The Russian Prosecutor-General’s Office has many times asked the Home Office to accelerate the execution of the requests,” it said. “Nevertheless, the Russian Prosecutor-General’s Office has received no information from relevant British agencies on these requests.”

Russia complained that its investigators had been unable to interview doctors who had treated Litvinenko at Barnet Hospital and University College Hospital, where he died on November 23. It had not received copies of autopsy reports or the results of any forensic examination. “These conditions deprive Russia of a bulk of

“ information, which could be helpful in solving the crime, and of an opportunity to fully verify existing theories,” it said.

Litvinenko, a vocal critic of the President, accused Mr Putin, in a dramatic deathbed statement. of ordering his murder. Mr Lugovoy, who runs a private security service, maintains that he is innocent.

He met Litvinenko at a hotel on November 1, the day the victim fell ill after ingesting the poison. Mr Lugovoy was interviewed by Scotland Yard detectives in Moscow in December and said yesterday that he was willing to meet them again if necessary “because I am fully confident of my innocence”.

He has refused to travel to London, however, claiming that “powerful forces in England” are behind the case against him. He alleged that British authorities would “do all they can to withhold information concerning Litvinenko’s murder”.

“I am sure that the British authorities don’t need this case solved and they will take all possible measures to prevent the public from learning the truth about who actually ordered and perpetrated Litvinenko’s assassination,” Mr Lugovoy said.

The Litvinenko story so far

November 23, 2006
Alexander Litvinenko dies in hospital 22 days after meeting the former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoy and the businessman Dmitri Kovtun in London

December 4
Nine British police officers travel to Moscow to pursue their investigation into the death of Litvinenko

December 9
Officials in Moscow say that Russian police may travel to Britain as part of a parallel investigation into the murder

January 12, 2007
Russian prosecutors ask for permission to question more than 100 witnesses and examine dozens of sites in Britain

May 28
The British Ambassador to Moscow makes a formal extradition request for Mr Lugovoy

June 3
President Putin reiterates earlier comments by Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, accusing Britain of “politicising” Litvinenko’s murder

July 5
Russia officially refuses a British extradition request for Mr Lugovoy

Source: Times archives

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