Litvinenko suspect: MI5 tried to recruit me
Andrei Lugovoi denies killing Alexander Litvinenko
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Thursday, 31, May 2007 08:25
The man wanted over the murder of ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko has claimed that the British secret service tried to recruit him.
At a press conference in Moscow Andrei Lugovoi, also a former Russian spy, indicated that Mr Litvinenko had unsuccessfully tried to persuade him to spy for Britain.
He also alleged that British security agents had asked him to collect compromising information about Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Mr Lugovoi, 43, has denied killing Mr Litvinenko, who died on November 23rd in London after being poisoned by the radioactive isotope polonium-210.
On Monday the British embassy in Moscow formally requested the extradition of Mr Lugovoi after the crown prosecution service (CPS) announced that it had enough evidence to mount a prosecution over Mr Litvinenko's death.
However Russian officials have indicated that they will not hand over Mr Lugovoi because such a move would violate the country's constitution.
Speaking today Mr Lugovoi claimed that Mr Litvinenko and exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky had both been working for the UK secret services and that the former had tried to persuade him to become involved with British intelligence.
Insisting that he had been made a scapegoat over Mr Litvinenko's murder, Mr Lugovoi stressed that the former KGB officer was "not my enemy".
He also claimed that British authorities feared he would "spill the beans" about the activities of Mr Litvinenko, who he said had "got out of the control" of British intelligence officers.
Mr Lugovoi, who suggested the UK secret services saw him as a possible "Russian James Bond", said that he feared he would be found guilty of Mr Litvinenko's murder if he were sent to London, but would fight to clear his "honest name".