Guy Faulconbridge
MOSCOW: Russian prosecutors said on Wednesday that Leonid Nevzlin, a former top manager of the Yukos business empire, could have ordered the poisoning of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko.
“A version is being looked at that those who ordered these crimes could be the same people who are on an international wanted list for serious and very serious crimes, one of whom is... Leonid Nevzlin,” Russia's prosecutor-general's office said in a statement posted on its Web site
www.genproc.gov.ru
The statement adds another bizarre twist to the Litvinenko saga and could indicate Russia plans to up the pressure on the former owners of Yukos, which has been dismembered and is now bankrupt after facing billions of dollars of back tax claims.
Nevzlin's spokesman dismissed the prosecutor-general's allegations: “Everyone knows the KGB's methods. These statements are ridiculous and do not warrant a response.”
A trusted business partner of jailed Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Nevzlin has provoked the Kremlin's ire by slamming Putin for the destruction of Yukos, which he says was political motivated.
After Khodorkovsky's arrest in October 2003, Nevzlin fled to Israel and later received Israeli citizenship. He has a Jewish grandparent.
Litvinenko, who died in London on November 23, made a deathbed statement accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of his murder.
The Kremlin called Litvinenko's allegations “nonsense”.
His slow, agonising death in a London hospital from poisoning by radioactive polonium 210 has prompted a five-nation police investigation and scorched the Kremlin's reputation, despite its repeated denials of any involvement in the murder.
