UK Involved in Litvinenko Death, Suspect Claims

Andrei Lugovoi, the man charged by the UK with murdering the Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko, today claimed British intelligence had been involved in his death.

Speaking at an extraordinary press conference in Moscow, he said UK security services had in the past tried to recruit him, and that Litvinenko was working for MI6.

Mr Lugovoi claimed the British were trying to make him a scapegoat for the dissident's death by turning him into a "Russian James Bond".

When the Guardian asked Mr Lugovoi whether he had any proof for his allegations that the British government was, in effect, responsible for Litvinenko's death, he replied: "I do."

Litvinenko was poisoned by the radioactive isotope polonium-210, dying in a London hospital on November 23 last year.

Mr Lugovoi said Britain was trying to recruit Russian citizens as spies to find compromising material on the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

The UK had sought "compromising information" on Mr Putin from him during business trips in previous years, he claimed, adding: "They are selling British citizenship ... it is sold in the same way that Chinese shirts are sold in the market."

The former KGB bodyguard, now a wealthy businessman, accused Britain of being naive and careless in embracing Russian exiles such as Boris Berezovsky.

He claimed to have three possible explanations for the death of Litvinenko, and alleged that both Litvinenko and Mr Berezovsky were MI6 agents. Litvinenko, he said, told him that the British, including MI6, were "complete idiots" who would believe anything you told them.

Mr Lugovoi did not give a precise date for when he said UK intelligence had attempted to recruit him, but indicated that the alleged approach had happened in late 2005 or early 2006.

The Foreign Office declined to comment on his claims.

Last week, the Crown Prosecution Service said there was enough evidence to charge Mr Lugovoi with the murder of Litvinenko, an ex-KGB agent turned Kremlin critic.

Mr Lugovoi today rubbished the British version of events, saying: "They're trying to portray me as a Russian James Bond who jump inside a nuclear reactor and poisons his Russian friend and children and wife - all done by one individual [Lugovoi]. What is the motive?"

He met Litvinenko at a London hotel before the dissident become unwell, and was also contaminated with polonium-210, along with friend and business partner Dmitri Kovtun. Police found traces of polonium on Mr Lugovoi's wife and children.

When a reporter asked him today who had killed Litvinenko, he said: "It is the matter of the prosecutors. I don't know who killed him."

He added that "Litvinenko was not my enemy", saying he planned to hire lawyers in London and would "fight to clear my name".

Mr Lugovoi said the CPS decision meant he would not be able to go to the UK to explain his case, and claimed he had previously been prepared to fly to Britain with his lawyers to speak to police at Scotland Yard.

Earlier this week, the British ambassador to Moscow delivered a request for his extradition. Russian officials said the country's laws did not permit such an extradition, but also appeared to suggest Moscow could extradite Mr Lugovoi to the UK in exchange for Mr Berezovsky, an outspoken enemy of Mr Putin.

British security and intelligence officials believe that former and possibly serving agents of the Russian state were behind Litvinenko's murder, arguing that only a state institution could produce polonium-210.