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MOSCOW and LONDON - Scotland Yard detectives dispatched to Moscow to investigate the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko were told yesterday that they would be barred from personally questioning any witnesses and no suspects will be returned to Britain to face charges.
In a series of comments that appeared to sharply limit the activity of the British team, Yuri Chaika, Russia's General Prosecutor, made it clear that if there is to be a "Litvinenko trial" it will take place in Russia, not Britain.
British courts have repeatedly refused high-profile Russian extradition requests in recent years, including that of Litvinenko's allies, the oligarch Boris Berezovsky and the Chechen exile Akhmed Zakayev, and it seems Moscow is in no mood to be helpful when the boot is on the other foot.
Though Chaika vowed that the Russian side would do its "utmost" to help the British investigation, everything he said appeared to indicate the opposite, a state of affairs that mirrors increasingly icy relations between London and Moscow on the subject.
Efforts by officers from the Yard's anti-terrorist command to talk to one of the central figures in the case - businessman and former KGB bodyguard Andrei Lugovoi - were also facing unexpected delay after it emerged that he was being treated in a hospital for an unexplained ailment.
Chaika said: "According to our information, he is ill and currently in hospital. If doctors allow, he will certainly be questioned."
News that Lugovoi is in hospital was unexpected: last week he underwent a series of tests for polonium-210, the lethal radioactive isotope which killed Litvinenko, and was allegedly given the all clear and has appeared healthy since.
The businessman emerged as a key actor in the month-long drama of Litvinenko's poisoning and subsequent death after he visited London three times in October. Lugovoi met Litvinenko four times on these trips to discuss potential business ventures.
But he again denied any involvement in the poisoning and claimed he is being set up as a suspect. He told the Itar-Tass news agency: "Once I give all the necessary testimony to the law enforcement organs, I intend publicly to put an end to speculation about my supposed involvement in this story that has caused such a stir."
Chaika made it clear that his own officials would conduct the interrogation of any witnesses with the British side only allowed to listen in but apparently not allowed to interject or pose its own questions spontaneously.
A nine-strong team of anti-terrorism officers arrived in Moscow on Tuesday with a brief to find out everything it can about the mysterious death of former Russian intelligence operative in London on November 23. Litvinenko appears to have been poisoned by a huge dose of polonium-210, traces of which have been found at various locations throughout London.
A list of individuals who the Yard officers want to question has been submitted to their Russian counterparts.
It is understood to include two Russian men who were in London at the time that Litvinenko fell ill but whose names have not been in the public domain.
Chaika made it clear that representatives of Russia's FSB security service would not be dragged into the investigation as some in Britain have hoped.
Three of the "people of interest" are Russian businessmen who met Litvinenko in London on November 1, the day he is thought to have been poisoned.
The trio - Lugovoi, his business associate Dmitri Kovtun, and Vyacheslav Sokolenko - have said they are willing to cooperate with the investigation and strongly deny any involvement in Litvinenko's poisoning.
Chaika also said yesterday that there was no way that the polonium-210 could have come from Russia as has been suggested in some media.
He indicated that detectives would not get the chance to interview a former FSB officer called Mikhail Trepashkin who is serving a four-year sentence for divulging state secrets.
Through his lawyer Trepashkin has indicated he has something important to tell Scotland Yard about the Litvinenko case but Chaika suggested yesterday he knew nothing.
- INDEPENDENT
