Litvinenko was killed by MI6, claims suspect

The twisting saga of the death of Alexander Litvinenko reached a new level of intrigue yesterday when the man charged with his murder claimed MI6 and a leading Russian exile were behind the assassination.

Andrei Lugovoy, a Russian businessman and former KGB agent, shrugged off the allegation that he poisoned Mr Litvinenko with highly radioactive polonium-210 by saying he had evidence to show that British intelligence had a motive.

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Mr Lugovoy told a packed press conference in Moscow that MI6 and Boris Berezovsky, the UK-based oligarch and bete noire of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, were seeking to make him a scapegoat.

Mr Litvinenko, 46, fell gravely ill after meeting Mr Lugovoy and two other Russians at the Millennium Hotel in central London.

Looking tanned and adopting a combative tone, Mr Lugovoy said he had been portrayed as a "Russian James Bond" when in fact he had been approached by Mr Litvinenko, who he said was working for MI6, to collect compromising details on Mr Putin. He said: "The poisoning of Litvinenko could not have been but under the control of British secret service."

The claims were dismissed by the Government as a "smokescreen". A Foreign Office spokesman said: "This is a criminal matter and is not an issue about intelligence. A British citizen was killed in London and UK citizens and visitors were put at risk."

The Crown Prosecution Service announced last week that it was charging Mr Lugovoy with murder and was seeking his extradition. The request met with a flat refusal from Russia.

In a 90-minute speech given wide coverage on state-controlled television, Mr Lugovoy said Mr Berezovsky, who he once worked for, was also a British agent. He alleged there was a falling out between Mr Berezovsky and Mr Litvinenko.

Mr Lugovoy, who runs a security firm in Moscow and owns a soft drinks factory, said he thought Mr Litvinenko was killed with at least the "connivance" of MI6 because he was disclosing his contacts.

He said Mr Berezovsky would have become involved because Mr Litvinenko was threatening to disclose evidence that would threaten his asylum status.

Mr Lugovoy, who was once a bodyguard to the Russian elite, said: "Even if it was not done by the secret service itself, it was done under its control or connivance."

He claimed Mr Litvinenko had given him a code book and a mobile phone for communicating with his M16 handlers at some point in 2005 or 2006. He said he had refused to provide "compromising information" on Mr Putin.

However, he failed to offer any explanation why traces of the isotope were found on him. When asked if he had evidence to back up his claims, he said he did, but would only disclose it to Russian investigators.

Mr Berezovsky said yesterday: "Everything about Mr Lugovoy's words and presentation made it obvious that he is acting on Kremlin instruction."

Friends of Mr Litvinenko, the man who issued a deathbed statement accusing Mr Putin of being behind his murder, said the idea MI6 would have recruited him was implausible.

Andrei Nekrasov, who made a documentary with Mr Litvinenko based on his claims that the FSB was behind apartment bombings blamed on Chechen rebels, also dismissed the claims.

A tradition of treachery and espionage

Russia is furiously beefing up its long-range missile stock in response to American "imperialism". At the same time, London and Moscow exchange ritual allegations of treachery and murder by their ruthless spies.

If it sounds like the Cold War that is because, after a brief hiatus following the fall of the Berlin Wall, normal service has resumed in the ignoble battle for supremacy between the intelligence services of Russia and Britain.

For 150 years, Whitehall and the Kremlin have fought a clandestine war to gain political advantage. The collision between the two began in the 19th century when Britain and Russia fought the Great Game for control of central Asia.

But the golden age for sneaky practices came with the Cold War when London and Moscow pitted their best double agentsand interrogators against each other.

Russia claimed success with the Cambridge spy ring of Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean and Anthony Blunt, who helped pass on secrets throughout the 1950s and Sixties. MI6 busied themselves with penetrating the KGB and Soviet military intelligence, the GRU.

Such battles continue. While British intelligence sources have hinted at officially sanctioned Russian involvement in Mr Litvinenko's murder, Moscow is not worried about getting one back on London.

In January last year, the Kremlin released pictures of a "spy rock", a piece of resin cast to look like a stone which had been hidden on a Moscow street to allow British agents to transmit information to an electronic gadget inside. The Foreign Office said it was "shocked and surprised" at the claims.