Saturday, December 09, 2006

KGB To "Visit" Britain

From a recent AP report on the ongoing investigation of the murder of Alexander Litvinenko:

In Moscow, prosecutors said officials would travel to Britain as part of a Russian inquiry into the death, but did not confirm who would be questioned or when the interviews would take place.

Andrei Nekrasov, a friend of Litvinenko, said there was concern among emigres in the British capital that the Kremlin would use the inquiries as a “pretext to harass exiles in London.”

Litvinenko’s wife Marina and friend Alex Goldfarb were both prepared to meet Russian officials - but on the condition British police first tested the investigators for traces of polonium, Goldfarb said Saturday.

—–

British police said they had no details of the planned visit by Russian investigators and it was not immediately clear whether they would be given access to exiles granted political asylum by the British government.

Exiles in London feared the Russian investigators would seek to unsettle the emigre community, Nekrasov said.

He said that former Russian security officer Mikhail Trepashkin, serving a four-year prison sentence after being convicted of divulging state secrets, had said a Kremlin agent previously ordered to monitor Litvinenko was among those appointed to investigate the killing.

No comments: