From: MSN NicknameEagle_wng  (Original Message)    Sent: 12/11/2006 2:18 AM
Russia presses to question Berezovsky

By Neil Buckley in Moscowand Jimmy Burns in London

Published: December 11 2006 02:00 | Last updated: December 11 2006 02:00

Russian prosecutors are exerting pressure on the UK authorities to allow their own investigators to fly into London to probe the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, in a move that threatens to raise political and diplomatic tensions over the case.

In recent days the UK government has been trying to keep the Russian intervention secret, in an effort to avoid the issue turning into a full-blown row, according to Whitehall officials.

"Officially we have no comment other than that this is a police investigation that has to be allowed to run its course. It's when the investigation reaches a conclusion that we risk a major political and diplomatic tussle," one UK insider said.

Meanwhile, German prosecutors yesterday opened an investigation into a Russian associate of the murdered ex-spy after finding traces of radioactive substance polonium in properties he used in Hamburg.

Russian businessman Dmitry Kovtun, who met Litvinenko in London on the day he fell ill, is being investigated on suspicion of illegally handling radioactive material, Hamburg's chief prosecutor Martin Koehnke told a news conference.

There was "a reasonable basis of suspicion that he may not just be a victim but could also be a perpetrator", Mr Koehnke said.

British police investigators, who have a team in Moscow ostensibly working with the Russian prosecutor's office, are thought to be struggling to follow a number of lines of inquiry as each day takes them deeper into the murky world of Russian politics, with its competing alliances of businessmen, journalists, politicians and secret agents.

Meanwhile, UK police sources have told the Financial Times that the Russian authorities have recently lodged a series of formal requests for access to individuals they want to question in London.

Russian prosecutors have said their investigators will want to question Boris Berezovsky and Akhmed Zakayev, who have openly declared themselves associates and friends of Litvinenko.

Mr Berezovsky, one of Moscow's wealthiest and most powerful oligarchs in the 1990s, is wanted in Russia on fraud charges, and Mr Zakayev, a member of the shadow rebel "government" of Chechnya, on suspicion of involvement in terrorism.

Both say the charges are politically motivated and have so far successfully used the British legal system to block Moscow's attempts to have them extradited.

Both men have vigorously denied any involvement in Litvinenko's death which they claim was the result of his outspoken opposition to the Putin regime.

Associates of Litvinenko - and the former KGB agent himself in a deathbed statement - have accused the Kremlin of being responsible for his death by poisoning with polonium 210 on November 23.

The Kremlin has dismissed such claims as "nonsense" and suggested foreign-based enemies of Russia were behind the killing.

In a separate development, the FT has learnt that Litvinenko was being paid as a consultant for information on Russian businesses, and people linked to them, by Titon International, a London-based business intelligence company.

The company's website describes it as "providing a wide range of bespoke security and intelligence services to the commercial world".

Its services included screening potential employees of businesses operating in the UK so they can safeguard themselves against financial and reputational damage.

A senior executive with Titon International told the FT this weekend that Litvinenko had done consultancy work for the company and that its offices in London had been closed by police after traces of polonium 210 radiation had been found there. There is no suggestion that Litvinenko was poisoned in the building.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/6d5a10c4-88bc-11db-b485-0000779e2340,_i_rssPage=34c8a8a6-2f7b-11da-8b51-00000e2511c8.html