Litvinenko fired by Putin for bad character, says minister

MOSCOW:  Alexander Litvinenko, the former agent murdered in London last month, was an ex-prison guard of such poor character that he was fired from Russia's security agency when it was run by now-president Vladimir Putin, Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said.

Litvinenko's slow, agonising death from radiation poisoning in London last month prompted an international police investigation after the former agent accused Putin of his murder, an accusation the Kremlin dismissed as nonsense.

Ivanov, in rare comments by a top Russian official on the case, said Litvinenko never had access to important information.

"He was never a spy and never knew anything of any real value to give to any (foreign intelligence) service," Ivanov said on Friday.

"When Putin sacked Litvinenko, he knew there were a lot of claims that Litvinenko had cheated the law," Putin was head of the FSB at the time, part of a brief tenure which lasted from July 1998 until August 1999.

Ivanov worked under him as a deputy director, part of a 25-year career in Russian intelligence which ended when Putin appointed him defence minister in 2001.

Ivanov's spokesman later clarified to reporters that the minister meant Litvinenko was fired during Putin's tenure at the agency, rather than by Putin personally.

Ivanov said Western media reports describing Litvinenko as a spy murdered by the KGB reminded him of Cold War propaganda.

"For us, Litvinenko was nothing," he said. "We didn't care what he said and what he wrote on his deathbed".  Senior Russian officials have pointed out that if Moscow had wanted to target a traitorous former agent, there were far more obvious candidates than the relatively little-known Litvinenko.

In particular they cite Oleg Gordievsky, a top KGB spy stationed in London who defected to the West in 1985, causing serious damage to Soviet intelligence.

By contrast Ivanov said Litvinenko had worked in a special Interior Ministry unit in charge of escorting prison guards, where questions had arisen about his integrity and honesty.

"He had no training, not much intellect and a tendency for provocation," Ivanov said.

"His character was not right''.  The defence minister said Litvinenko was recruited into the FSB at a time when large numbers of well-trained former agents had quit to join the private sector and the agency was having trouble finding suitably qualified staff.

Russian media have previously reported that Litvinenko worked in an FSB agency set up to combat organised crime in business, which was disbanded after a few years without having achieved any major results.