I was framed by MI6, says ex-KGB spy

Andrei Lugovoi says the British intelligence service is behind the murder of Kremlin opponent Alexander Litvinenko.

from the June 1, 2007 edition

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Moscow - The thickening plot in the radiation murder of Kremlin opponent Alexander Litvinenko took a sensational new twist Thursday. The chief suspect, KGB agent-turned-businessman Andrei Lugovoi told reporters here that he is being framed by MI6, the British intelligence service, which, he claimed, had tried and failed to recruit him.

In a long and rambling statement, Mr. Lugovoi, who was formally charged with murder by British prosecutors last week, shed little light on who may have killed Mr. Litvinenko, or why. But he did lob fresh accusations which, analysts say, could raise the temperature in the already heated war of words between Moscow and London over the Litvinenko affair and might be used by the Kremlin to crack down harder on its domestic opposition.

Lugovoi claimed that both Litvinenko (a former KGB agent) and his sponsor, exiled anti-Kremlin billionaire Boris Berezovsky, were MI6 agents.

The bizarre mystery that swirls around how Litvinenko received a fatal dose of deadly Polonium-210 at a Nov. 1 London meeting with Lugovoi and another former Russian security officer, Dmitry Kovtun, is "a dark political story, where the main roles were played by the British secret services and their agents, Berezovsky and the late Litvinenko," Lugovoi said.

Lugovoi, who once worked as a bodyguard for Mr. Berezovsky's daughter, also said he'd tried in recent years to maintain business relations with the renegade tycoon, but "attempts were made to openly recruit me as a British intelligence service agent.... The British, in fact, suggested that I collect any information that could compromise President [Vladimir] Putin and members of his family," he said.

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