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Twin suspects: UK to name new accused in Litvinenko case
Published: 06 November, 2011, 13:17
Edited: 06 November, 2011, 18:49
London : British police gather in the lobby of the University College Hospital in London, 24 November 2006, hours after the death of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko. (AFP Photo / Odd Andersen)
TAGS: Crime, Scandal, Litvinenko case, UK, Mass media
The British Crown Prosecution Service suspects another Russian businessmen and former FSB agent, Dmitry Kovtun, of being involved in poisoning Aleksandr Litvinenko in November 2006. London reportedly wants him extradited to appear before a UK court.
The charges may be based on newly-collected documents related to the case of Litvinenko murder, the British Sunday Times reports.
The newspaper has talked to a Crown Prosecution Service representative, who said that in August the office received new documents related to the death of former FSB agent Litvinenko. He named neither the documents nor the source, but assured that the official statement is to be made in the nearer future.
“That’s strange that five years ago Britons had no grounds to bring accusations against me. And now, when Litvinenko’s wife initiated this process, they suddenly got some evidence,” he said.
In the last five years, Dmitry Kovtun has figured in the case as a witness. He accompanied the other accused, Andrey Lugovoy, and Litvinenko at the Millennium Hotel in London that particular day when, as believed, the latter was poisoned.
So far Kovtun has avoided any criminal proceedings. German prosecutors suspected him of bringing traces of polonium to Hamburg. They even opened a case against Kovtun (he married the German woman and has a residence permit), but closed it in 2009.
The Sunday Times managed to reach Kovtun by phone. He confirmed that Scotland Yard indeed collected documents to bring charges against “the second man”.
Kovtun told the newspaper that charging him with the involvement to Litvinenko murder would be a “politically-motivated step” from London. Kovtun denied all possible accusations.
So far Scotland Yard has officially had only one main suspect – Russian businessman Andrey Lugovoy, whom London believes to be guilty and also wants to see extradited. If the reports are confirmed, the issue of Kovtun’s extradition to the UK is going to become another stumbling rock in Russia–UK relations, as with the case of Lugovoy’s extradition. Kovtun, like Lugovoy, lives in Russia and cannot technically, in accordance with Russian Constitution, be extradited. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, commenting on the situation, firmly stated that the extradition of Lugovoy, like any other of the country’s citizens, is impermissible.
Meanwhile, Russian MP Dmitry Vyatkin, commenting on the latest news, told Echo of Moscow radio that to get more information on the case or even question Kovtun or Lugovoy, British law-enforcement authorities should cooperate more closely with Russian side.
Andrey Lugovoy also denies his guilt. In exclusive interview with RT, he shared his view on whom to blame, who could have profited from the poisoning of Litvinenko.
The reopened hearing in the case into Litvinenko’s poisoning started on October 13 in London. This month will mark five years since Litvinenko’s death.
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4 comments
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Bogdanov has a good point. I once did research on those who were directly involved in the killing of the Romanov family (Czars of Russia), and I found not a single ethnic Russian name. Obviously, ethnic Russians have mostly been the victims and not the instigators of major globalist political affairs of the past century. Their great country has stood squarely in the way of globalist expansion and must be dealt with by the globalists, which his why the Romanov family was brutally murdered and the Communists placed in power over the Russian people. The Romanov family even warned the USA of globalist intentions many decades before the Communists took control of Russia, as the globalists moved to increase their power in the USA during the American Civil War.
Russia will have to withstand further assaults, as they are the major power standing off the globalists at this point. It is now the Americans who must fight from within, as Russians did when their country was under Communist domination. Russians had better pray that we will be as successful at overcoming the Fascists as they were at overcoming the Communists, or it is a bad future for the both of us.
This political spy game may cloud the issues as to what is going on, but that is probably the intentions all along.
@Bogdanov
The West has been for centuries, is currently, and will be in the future the instinctive enemy of Russia, regardless of who rules Russia, the Tsar, the communists, the capitalists, or any mixture of the three. This is a Napoleonic disease that has been eating up the Western political brain for over two centuries and will eventually bring the West down in ignominious defeat. Just look at them. They have turned into a murderous mafia on a global scale. Their leader, the United States, is suffering from an incurable economic and political impotence. This is why her options in international relations have been reduced to destabilization and destruction of defenseless countries: six parallel aggressive wars on foreign lands and counting. The Empire is bleeding to death and has lost its sense of orientation totally. I'm afraid we will see more death and destruction until the she is forced to decline to reason and realism, and become a responsible member of the civilized community of nations. But don't hold your breath. Not yet.
Come on Bogdanov. You should know that there is no real difference between Russians and Ukrainians except those artificially promoted by the US/NATO axis to prevent them from living and acting as one people. Many Ukrainians live in Russia, many Russians live in the Ukraine, the Ukraine was the original Russia before Russia even came into existence, Russia and the Ukraine were a part of the same country for centuries, the Ukrainian language is just a southern peasant dialect of the Russian language; there is no difference between the two. It is a great fear of US geopolitical strategists, whose thinking is still coloured by the old Mackinder heartland theory, to have the two living in peace and friendship as one. They will do anything to try to set them against each other and it is a huge mistake to aid them in this regard. And by the way, I say this as a person whose ancestors are all Ukrainian.