Russian spy Litvinenko buried
The murdered Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko was buried in the same London graveyard as Karl Marx today after the Muslim prayer service that he asked for as he lay on his deathbed last month.
As prosecutors in Moscow announced that they had opened their own criminal investigation into his poisoning, around 50 of Litvinenko’s friends and family gathered for his burial at Highgate Cemetery in North London. Marx, the German father of Communism who also died in exile, is buried close by.
The mourners were led by Litvinenko's wife, Marina, and 12-year-old son Anatoly. Joining them in the rain was his father Walter, his mother Nina Belyavskaya and first wife Natalia, as well as friends Alex Goldfarb, the exiled Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky and the filmmaker Andrei Nekrasov.
Litvinenko’s dark-stained coffinwas driven around the perimeter of the cemetery before being laid to rest at the burial site in a non-denominational service. The Health Protection Agency has been consulted on the necessary safety precautions for his coffin because his body remains radioactive.
Earlier, Walter Litvinenko joined mourners at the Central London mosque in Regent’s Park for a Muslim service dedicated to the former spy. His father says he converted to Islam shortly before his death, although some of his friends say he was simply sympathetic to the cause of Muslim Chechens.
In another twist to the saga, Dimitry Kovtun, a former KGB bodyguard who entertained Litvinenko at a London hotel on the day he fell ill, was also found to have an illness connected with radiation poisoning.
British detectives, who are treating Litvinenko's death as murder, have already questioned Mr Kovtun, a businessman. Police have been following the trail across London left by Mr Kovtun and his close friend, Andrei Lugovoy. It includes a number of locations where the radioactive isotope polonium-210 has been found.
But critics of President Vladimir Putin fear that the announcement that the Russian Prosecutor General’s office is to conduct its own investigation into both the Litvnenko and Kovtun cases could severely hamper the British one.
The move would allow suspects to be prosecuted in Russia. Officials previously have said that Russia would not extradite any suspects in the killing of Litvinenko, who died in London on November 23.
Several workers at the Millennium Hotel in London's Grosvenor Square where Litvinenko held a meeting also tested positive for low levels of polonium-210. Health officials are likely to ask anyone who was in the hotel's Pine Bar on 1 November to come forward.
In a statement written on his deathbed, Mr Litvinenko, a 43-year-old former KGB officer, accused Mr Putin of being behind his poisoning, an accusation echoed once more by his father today.
On Monday, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, expressed worries that ties could be damaged if insinuations of high-level Russian involvement continued.
But today he insisted that political ties between Britain and Russia were not being affected by the investigation into the poisoning. He said: "The Scotland Yard investigation is not affecting the quality of Russia-Britain political relations."
Mr Kovtun was interviewed by Russian prosecutors yesterday in the presence of the British detectives, who arrived in Moscow on Monday. He and and Mr Lugovoy were in the same Moscow clinic being tested for contamination by polonium-210. Mr Lugovoy was still waiting for the results of his tests.
Diplomats in the Russian capital also confirmed that traces of radiation had been discovered in the British Embassy, which the businessmen visited shortly after news of Litvinenko’s poisoning became public. The two men gave written statements to Embassy officials and expressed their willingness to co-operate in any British inquiry.
The lawyer representing the two businessmen, Andrei Romashov, emphasised that they were being treated "as witnesses". He disclosed that Mr Kovtun had also been interviewed briefly on Tuesday about his two trips to London.
A third Russian businessman, Vyacheslav Sokolenko, who also flew to London to watch a football match on November 1, is on the list of men British detectives want to meet.
All three men met Litvinenko at the Millennium Hotel in Grosvenor Square, London, and were among the last to see him before he succumbed to the effects of the radiation poison. They have all strenuously denied any part in his death.
Mr Lugovoy, a former KGB officer whose company is worth £50 million, has said that he believes he has been framed and is worried about how seriously he has been contaminated by polonium-210. There were reports last week from Moscow that he had been tested and showed no signs of exposure.
He denies he is trying to avoid a meeting with the detectives and says that he is fed up with allegations that he was involved in the poison plot.
Detectives working on the London end of the murder inquiry are concentrating on identifying where Mr Lugovoy went and whom he met during three trips he made in the fortnight before his former colleague was fatally poisoned.
What police have found startling is that at eight locations on the Lugovoy trail traces of polonium-210 have already been found; experts are still testing other sites.
Mr Lugovoy visited five of the sites with Litvinenko, including the Itsu sushi bar where friends of the former KGB colonel suspect that he was poisoned. Mr Lugovoy says that he went there on October 16 at Litvinenko’s invitation. He told The Times: "It was one of his favourites in London. He said it was a good place to talk."
But the poison victim was never at the Arsenal football ground, where Mr Lugovoy and a party of wealthy Russians went to watch a match on November 1. Nor was he on either of the two British Airways Boeing 767s on which Mr Lugovoy flew from Moscow and on which radioactive material was discovered.
Police are surprised that polonium-210 was found in guest rooms at both the Millennium Hotel and at the Sheraton Park Lane, when Mr Lugovoy maintains that he met Litvinenko only in the public bars and the foyers of both hotels. Mr Lugovoy’s version of events is that whoever poisoned his former colleague also contaminated him to implicate him in the plot and draw police away from the real culprits.
He and Mr Kovtun have been friends since their teenage days, when they went to the same military academy. The third man on their football trip to London, Mr Sokolenko, was with them at army college.
Mr Kovtun says that together they built up the Pershin company and that they met Litvinenko to discuss a business proposal.
As prosecutors in Moscow announced that they had opened their own criminal investigation into his poisoning, around 50 of Litvinenko’s friends and family gathered for his burial at Highgate Cemetery in North London. Marx, the German father of Communism who also died in exile, is buried close by.
The mourners were led by Litvinenko's wife, Marina, and 12-year-old son Anatoly. Joining them in the rain was his father Walter, his mother Nina Belyavskaya and first wife Natalia, as well as friends Alex Goldfarb, the exiled Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky and the filmmaker Andrei Nekrasov.
Litvinenko’s dark-stained coffinwas driven around the perimeter of the cemetery before being laid to rest at the burial site in a non-denominational service. The Health Protection Agency has been consulted on the necessary safety precautions for his coffin because his body remains radioactive.
Earlier, Walter Litvinenko joined mourners at the Central London mosque in Regent’s Park for a Muslim service dedicated to the former spy. His father says he converted to Islam shortly before his death, although some of his friends say he was simply sympathetic to the cause of Muslim Chechens.
In another twist to the saga, Dimitry Kovtun, a former KGB bodyguard who entertained Litvinenko at a London hotel on the day he fell ill, was also found to have an illness connected with radiation poisoning.
British detectives, who are treating Litvinenko's death as murder, have already questioned Mr Kovtun, a businessman. Police have been following the trail across London left by Mr Kovtun and his close friend, Andrei Lugovoy. It includes a number of locations where the radioactive isotope polonium-210 has been found.
But critics of President Vladimir Putin fear that the announcement that the Russian Prosecutor General’s office is to conduct its own investigation into both the Litvnenko and Kovtun cases could severely hamper the British one.
The move would allow suspects to be prosecuted in Russia. Officials previously have said that Russia would not extradite any suspects in the killing of Litvinenko, who died in London on November 23.
Several workers at the Millennium Hotel in London's Grosvenor Square where Litvinenko held a meeting also tested positive for low levels of polonium-210. Health officials are likely to ask anyone who was in the hotel's Pine Bar on 1 November to come forward.
In a statement written on his deathbed, Mr Litvinenko, a 43-year-old former KGB officer, accused Mr Putin of being behind his poisoning, an accusation echoed once more by his father today.
On Monday, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, expressed worries that ties could be damaged if insinuations of high-level Russian involvement continued.
But today he insisted that political ties between Britain and Russia were not being affected by the investigation into the poisoning. He said: "The Scotland Yard investigation is not affecting the quality of Russia-Britain political relations."
Mr Kovtun was interviewed by Russian prosecutors yesterday in the presence of the British detectives, who arrived in Moscow on Monday. He and and Mr Lugovoy were in the same Moscow clinic being tested for contamination by polonium-210. Mr Lugovoy was still waiting for the results of his tests.
Diplomats in the Russian capital also confirmed that traces of radiation had been discovered in the British Embassy, which the businessmen visited shortly after news of Litvinenko’s poisoning became public. The two men gave written statements to Embassy officials and expressed their willingness to co-operate in any British inquiry.
The lawyer representing the two businessmen, Andrei Romashov, emphasised that they were being treated "as witnesses". He disclosed that Mr Kovtun had also been interviewed briefly on Tuesday about his two trips to London.
A third Russian businessman, Vyacheslav Sokolenko, who also flew to London to watch a football match on November 1, is on the list of men British detectives want to meet.
All three men met Litvinenko at the Millennium Hotel in Grosvenor Square, London, and were among the last to see him before he succumbed to the effects of the radiation poison. They have all strenuously denied any part in his death.
Mr Lugovoy, a former KGB officer whose company is worth £50 million, has said that he believes he has been framed and is worried about how seriously he has been contaminated by polonium-210. There were reports last week from Moscow that he had been tested and showed no signs of exposure.
He denies he is trying to avoid a meeting with the detectives and says that he is fed up with allegations that he was involved in the poison plot.
Detectives working on the London end of the murder inquiry are concentrating on identifying where Mr Lugovoy went and whom he met during three trips he made in the fortnight before his former colleague was fatally poisoned.
What police have found startling is that at eight locations on the Lugovoy trail traces of polonium-210 have already been found; experts are still testing other sites.
Mr Lugovoy visited five of the sites with Litvinenko, including the Itsu sushi bar where friends of the former KGB colonel suspect that he was poisoned. Mr Lugovoy says that he went there on October 16 at Litvinenko’s invitation. He told The Times: "It was one of his favourites in London. He said it was a good place to talk."
But the poison victim was never at the Arsenal football ground, where Mr Lugovoy and a party of wealthy Russians went to watch a match on November 1. Nor was he on either of the two British Airways Boeing 767s on which Mr Lugovoy flew from Moscow and on which radioactive material was discovered.
Police are surprised that polonium-210 was found in guest rooms at both the Millennium Hotel and at the Sheraton Park Lane, when Mr Lugovoy maintains that he met Litvinenko only in the public bars and the foyers of both hotels. Mr Lugovoy’s version of events is that whoever poisoned his former colleague also contaminated him to implicate him in the plot and draw police away from the real culprits.
He and Mr Kovtun have been friends since their teenage days, when they went to the same military academy. The third man on their football trip to London, Mr Sokolenko, was with them at army college.
Mr Kovtun says that together they built up the Pershin company and that they met Litvinenko to discuss a business proposal.
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