Lugovoy 'blackmailed to murder Litvinenko'

Boris Berezovsky has disclosed details of a dramatic telephone call following the death of Alexander Litvinenko in which the exiled tycoon pleaded with the murder suspect to flee Russia for the West.

Mr Berezovsky shed light on his relationship with the former FSB agent Andrei Lugovoy just before the Russian prosecutor general's office announced that swapping the two men for trial had been ruled out.

Mr Berezovsky is wanted in Russia on fraud charges while Britain wants to extradite Mr Lugovoy on suspicion of murdering Mr Litvinenko, a former Russian agent, with the radioactive polonium-210.

Speaking at the Miller Academy on Tuesday night, Mr Berezovsky said that he had known Mr Lugovoy, his former bodyguard, "for a long time", and trusted him.

Following Mr Litvinenko's death last November, Mr Lugovoy telephoned the billionaire. "I told him - if you are not guilty, you should come to this country - go to Heathrow and talk to Scotland Yard. There is no chance you will go to jail if you are not guilty. I told him there was a polonium trail all over Europe, including in my office, and that he had to explain it.

"I got no answer" from Mr Lugovoy, said Mr Berezovsky, adding that "all the steps of Lugovoy just confirm that he is behind" the poisoning. But he said that he still felt uneasy about Mr Lugovoy's role in the killing, as the former agent had previously protected Mr Berezovsky and his family in Russia, as well as the former pro-reform prime minister Yegor Gaidar.

Mr Lugovoy denies any connection to the Litvinenko murder, which followed a meeting between the two men and a third former Russian security agent, Dmitri Kovtun, at a hotel in London.

"Even now I have a strange impression," said Mr Berezovsky, who did not give further details but hinted that Mr Lugovoy may have been coerced into the murder. He pointed out that the former agent had been imprisoned in 2001 after attempting to spring from jail an associate of Mr Berezovsky, the former deputy director of Aeroflot Nikolai Glushkov, who had been imprisoned for fraud.

Last week Mr Berezovsky told a reporter that Mr Lugovoy's life may be in danger because he was a "witness of Putin's crime". Mr Berezovsky has frequently accused the Russian President of being behind the murder of his employee, Mr Litvinenko, who also accused Mr Putin of his murder in a deathbed statement.

On Tuesday evening, he repeated the accusation but denied that he had become an embarrassing guest for Britain which granted him political asylum in 2003. In a recent interview with The Guardian, he had called for the use of force to remove President Putin from power.

Mr Berezovsky argued that on the contrary, thanks to his efforts, the West was now more aware of the "real danger" posed by President Putin. "In 2001, only 10 per cent thought he was dangerous in the West. Now it is 90 per cent," Mr Berezovsky said, adding that he feared for his own safety following Mr Litvinenko's death.

Asked what Britain should do if Russia continued to refuse to extradite the suspect for trial, Mr Berezovsky replied: "This is not just a problem for Britain, this is a problem for the West." He suggested that economic sanctions could be invoked.

Russia points out that it is constitutionally barred from extraditing a Russian citizen for trial abroad, but has offered to put Mr Lugovoy on trial in Moscow. Britain has ruled that out.