Both the Russian government and its Foreign Intelligence Service are dismissing claims the Kremlin is linked to an alleged attempt in London to kill former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko with poison.

The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the Interfax news agency quoted a spokesman for the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) as saying "Litvinenko is not the kind of person for whose sake we would spoil bilateral relations."

The BBC reports that Moscow has "denied involvement" in the case of Mr. Litvinenko, who defected to Britain in 2001, and who has been investigating the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "We cannot comment on the very fact of what happened to Litvinenko. We don't consider it possible to comment on the statements accusing the Kremlin because it is nothing but sheer nonsense."

The Times of London reports that Litvinenko, a former lieutenant colonel in the KGB who is an outspoken critic of the Kremlin, fell ill on November 1 after a meeting with Italian security expert Mario Scaramella, with whom Litvinenko was investigating Russian death squads operating abroad. Dr. Scaramella emerged from hiding Tuesday to speak to the press.

Looking nervous and exhausted, Dr Scaramella described his half-hour meeting with Mr Litvinenko. "We had already met several times there. There were no other customers at the time. He got some food from the self-service, a sort of refrigerator bar. He got some soup and we went downstairs to speak." The pair studied four pages of text that had come in two e-mails from "a mutual source" in Russia. "It was full of names and facts," he said, adding that both men doubted the authenticity of some of the material.

Both men had previously received e-mail threats.

The Times also reports that before meeting Scaramella for lunch on November 1, Litvinenko earlier met with two Russians, one a former KGB colleague of his, for "a cup of tea." Litvinenko said he felt the first symptoms of poisoning "several hours" after lunch.

CNN reports that Litvinenko remains hospitalized after 21 days, and that experts cannot agree on whether radioactive thallium, a heavy metal, was used to poison him.

The Financial Times reports that thallium poisoning "is said to be a hallmark of Russia's intelligence services," though it notes that "many people have passed through Russian intelligence who no longer work for it."

In a profile of the Russian defector turned British citizen, the BBC reports that Litvinenko has "long been a fierce critic of Russia President Vladimir Putin," even before Mr. Putin became president, and that Litvinenko is believed to have been close to journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who was murdered last month. Like Ms. Politkovskaya, Litvinenko focused much of his criticism on Russia's policy towards Chechnya. His book, "Blowing Up Russia: Terror From Within," accused agents of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) of the 1999 apartment block bombings in Russia that killed over 300 people. Russia blamed the bombings on Chechen separatists, and used the event to rally public support for the Second Chechen War.

The BBC reports that Litvinenko's friends have accused Russia of poisoning him in order to shut him up. And CNN writes that Alex Goldfarb, one of Litvinenko's friends, noted that "Moscow recently extended government powers to deal with 'extremists,' he said – 'So all of this is legal under Russian law.'"

Though no evidence as yet has tied Litvinenko's poisoning to Russia, the similarities of the attack to cold war methods have drawn condemnation from the Western press. In an editorial, The Daily Telegraph demanded a thorough investigation into "a murderous attack [on a British citizen] under conditions that raise grave, and reasonable, suspicions of the involvement of foreign agents."

The Foreign and Home Offices must be seen to pursue this case with the greatest rigour and to the highest possible level, and to demand whatever explanations they feel are required from the Russian authorities. Otherwise, there will be a clear suggestion that Britain dare not offend a Russian regime that may hold much of Europe to ransom over energy resources within a decade.

Whatever the future holds for British energy supplies, this country must not be a safe haven for international thuggery.

The Guardian, concerned about Russia's slide back toward Soviet tactics, called in its own editorial for Europe to engage Russia "across all fronts to encourage the growth of civil society, democratic habits and expectations."

In its dealings with Russia, the EU should promote pluralism, economic liberalism and the defence of human rights, as the Centre for European Reform argues in a new pamphlet. This sharp, sudden whiff of an ugly cold war past may be a reminder of how remote such values are to some of those who now hold sway in the Kremlin. Poisoning dissidents cannot be part of a modern, democratic agenda.

An editorial in The Washington Post wondered how President Bush felt about Putin's possible involvement in Litvinenko's poisoning.

While Mr. Litvinenko's story was emerging over the weekend, President Bush was pictured exchanging jollities with his "friend Vladimir" at a summit in Vietnam. Does Mr. Bush regret having given so much support to a leader who has dismantled his country's nascent democracy and whose opponents keep turning up in hospitals and morgues? If so, he's keeping his own secret.

But despite the media attention in Britain and the West, the Litvinenko case has received minimal coverage in Russia, the BBC reports. In particular, the country's three main TV networks have "steered clear of the story."

There appears to have been no mention of Mr Litvinenko in any of the main news bulletins or discussion programmes on state-controlled Channel One and Rossiya, nor on NTV, which is owned by the energy giant Gazprom.

Brief reports were, however, broadcast on the corporate-owned Ren TV channel and the business channel RBK TV.

Tony Halpin, Moscow correspondent for The Times, reports that the Russian print media is largely ignoring the story as well. He adds, however, that this may be because Russians "are almost certainly united in not wanting to read about" the case.

Those who regard Litvinenko as a traitor to his country are content to believe that he got his come-uppance from former comrades and see no reason for Russia to lose sleep over him. Publicity simply plays into the hands of those abroad who want to damage their country, in their view.

Others have simply grown weary of conspiracies, however sympathetic they might be to Mr Litvinenko's plight. They are quite willing to believe that the Russian state is capable of such actions, but simply shrug their shoulders that anybody else should be surprised. For them, it isn't news.

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Feedback appreciated. E-mail Arthur Bright.