Key witness denies ex-spy murder
By Gary James,WNS Russia Bureau Chief
MOSCOW - A Russian witness at the center of an international investigation into the poisoning of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko has denied involvement in the murder and hit back at British media for portraying him as a monster."I have absolutely no connection with the poisoning, had no connection and, I hope, will have no connection to it," Andrei Lugovoi said in a telephone interview late on Thursday from an isolated unit at a Moscow hospital that treated the victims of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Litvinenko's slow, agonizing death in a London hospital and his deathbed statement accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of the murder have prompted a five-nation police investigation and strained relations between London and Moscow. The Kremlin has dismissed Litvinenko's allegations as "nonsense".
Lugovoi, a former KGB bodyguard for the Kremlin elite, has attracted attention because he was one of two men who met Litvinenko in London on the day Litvinenko fell ill with radiation poisoning. Lugovoi has been staying for at least two weeks at Moscow's Hospital No. 6 under tight security with a second Russian witness who met Litvinenko in London, Dmitry Kovtun. Visiting British detectives have questioned both men.
The hospital has a unit for treating radiation victims but Lugovoi refused to say whether he himself had been contaminated with polonium 210, the substance that led to Litvinenko's death. He said that his health was "normal" and "not in danger", adding: "I have never said anywhere that I was poisoned with polonium.""I have been made into some sort of monster in Britain," he said, adding that he was angry at "wild reports" that he was a suspect in an investigation being made by British detectives. He said he was a witness and he met British and Russian investigators in Moscow without his lawyers.
posted by wnsworld @ 7:59 AM
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