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Murder Suspect Unrepentant in Moscow

Alleged radiation killer, safely out of UK reach, chats with Guardian

By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff

Posted May 21, 2008 4:15 PM CDT
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(Newser) – To Britain, he’s a wanted man, a murderer responsible for a diplomatic crisis. To Russia, he’s a respected, successful politician. So it was an unrepentant Andrei Lugovoi who sat down with the Guardian’s Luke Harding. The ex-KGB man insists he did not poison dissident Alexander Litvinenko by placing radioactive polonium in his tea. Instead, he sees himself as a victim. 

“I've always said I can't remember whether I ordered tea,” he says. He denies that anything sinister took place during his fateful 2006 meeting in London with Litvinenko, who Lugovoi thinks was “definitely an agent of the English.” But Lugovoi himself was never a spy, he says, only a drill instructor. “People make me out to be some kind of KGB monster. Thank you, British press.”

Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB officer and key figure in the investigation into the fatal poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, speaks to the media at the Ekho Moskvy radio in Moscow.
Andrei Lugovoi, a former KGB officer and key figure in the investigation into the fatal poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, speaks to the media at the Ekho Moskvy radio in Moscow.   (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
A former KGB officer, now Russian businessman Andrei Lugovoi casts his ballot at a polling station in Moscow on Sunday, Dec. 2, 2007.
A former KGB officer, now Russian businessman Andrei Lugovoi casts his ballot at a polling station in Moscow on Sunday, Dec. 2, 2007.   (AP Photo/Alexander Wilf)
Andrei Lugovoi stands and listens to the national anthem during the first session in Moscow on Monday, Dec. 24, 2007.
Andrei Lugovoi stands and listens to the national anthem during the first session in Moscow on Monday, Dec. 24, 2007.   (AP Photo/ Misha Japaridze)
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Russia • Alexander Litvinenko • England • Andrei Lugovoi • British-Russian relations

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