Litvinenko suspect hits out at West
The former KGB officer suspected of involvement in the death of Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London last year dismissed concerns today that his recent election to Russia’s parliament was a spit in the face of the West.
“I would advise them to wipe it off,” Andrei Lugovoi said at a news conference.
British prosecutors have named him their chief suspect in the death of Mr Litvinenko, but Russia has refused to hand him over.
Mr Lugovoi was elected to parliament on Sunday from the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, a position that will give him immunity from prosecution.
Mr Litvinenko, a renegade member of the Russian secret services, died in a London hospital on November 23, 2006, after ingesting radioactive polonium-210.
He accused Russian president Vladimir Putin on his death-bed of being behind his killing – charges the Kremlin angrily denied.
