Litvinenko suspect to run in Russia parliament vote

MOSCOW: The Russian man wanted by Britain on suspicion of killing Alexander Litvinenko said on Sunday he would stand for election to the Russian parliament, in a move that could grant him immunity from future prosecution.   

Andrei Lugovoy, a former KGB security service officer, said he would run in the December parliamentary election as a candidate from the Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), which is headed by ultra-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky.   

I will participate tomorrow in the Liberal Democratic Party conference, Lugovoy said. LDPR is due to hold a party conference on Monday to approve its candidate list.   

I intend to stand for election as a member of the LDPR party list, Lugovoy said.   

Zhirinovsky said in a television interview on Saturday that Lugovoy would be a leading candidate from his party.   

British prosecutors want to extradite Lugovoy from Russia to face trial in London for the murder of Litvinenko, who died in a London hospital on Nov. 23 after receiving a dose of radioactive polonium-210, a rare and highly toxic isotope.   

Lugovoy has always protested his innocence and says he has been caught up in a deadly game of international intrigue that Britain is trying to manipulate to damage Russian interests.   

He has said Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) and Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky, Lugovoy's former employer, are more likely suspects. Berezovsky, who lives in London, has dismissed those allegations.   

Under Russia's election rules, Lugovoy could receive immunity from prosecution as a member of the lower house of parliament if LDPR was to receive the minimum 7 percent of the vote required to enter parliament.   

Russia has refused to send Lugovoy to Britain, saying its constitution does not allow the extradition of its citizens.   

Russian prosecutors have a separate investigation into the Litvinenko case and say that if sufficient evidence is supplied by Britain they could prosecute suspects inside Russia.   

Lugovoy met Litvinenko at the Millennium Hotel in Grosvenor Square on Nov. 1 along with another Russian, Dmitry Kovtun. Later that day, Litvinenko complained of feeling ill and was admitted to hospital shortly afterwards.   

Lugovoy has said his family including young children were at the meeting and that it would have been madness to even think of poisoning someone with polonium while his family was nearby.