RUSSIA:Scotland Yard officers are to fly to Russia this week to interview three businessmen who were among the last people to see Alexander Litvinenko before he was given a huge dose of radioactive poison.
Detectives may arrive in Moscow today to question the trio, as well as two other men who may have met Mr Litvinenko during a visit to London.
They have already interviewed Boris Berezovsky, the tycoon who employed Mr Litvinenko after they fled to Britain from Russia six years ago.
Mr Berezovsky is convinced his friend was assassinated on the orders of the Kremlin, but denies any knowledge of the events surrounding his death. "Alexander was my friend," he said. "I don't want to comment any more until after the police investigation." John Reid, the British home secretary, said yesterday that the investigation was about to be expanded overseas. "The police will follow wherever this investigation leads inside or outside of Britain," he said.
A second man poisoned with polonium-210 had yet to show any ill-effects yesterday, although urine tests have shown that he had ingested a potentially fatal dose. Mario Scaramella met Mr Litvinenko at a sushi bar in central London on November 1st to warn that he believed both their lives were in danger. His lawyer, Claudio Rastrelli, said last night that Mr Scaramella planned to make public all the information Mr Litvinenko passed on to him in dozens of e-mails that included the names of journalists and politicians allegedly linked to Russian espionage.
Before flying to Moscow, police built up a detailed picture of the movements of the key witnesses in the case by following a trail of radioactive traces around hotels, homes and offices in London. By examining immigration records, CCTV images and hotel files - as well as by detecting traces of polonium-210 at locations which Mr Litvinenko did not visit - they have established the identities of several men who appear to have come into contact with the killer.
Police are understood to be interested in the movement of at least two visiting Russians whose names have not emerged in public. They are also expected to interview a number of people who have protested their innocence in the Russian media and expressed their eagerness to meet officers from Scotland Yard. Among these is Andrei Lugovoi, another former intelligence officer, who runs a chain of companies, including a security consultancy and a soft drinks firm.
He met Mr Litvinenko in London 12 or 13 times this year to discuss a series of business proposals. Mr Lugovoi says they met on October 16th, and the following day talked again at the sushi bar where Mr Litvinenko was to meet Mr Scaramella two weeks later and where traces of polonium-210 were detected.
After returning to Moscow the following day on a flight operated by Transaero, a Russian airline, Mr Lugovoi says he returned to London on a British Airways flight on October 25th. He again met Mr Litvinenko at the Sheraton Park Lane hotel. He returned to Moscow on October 28th, and then flew back to London three days later with his wife and son to watch the Arsenal-CSKA Moscow match on November 1st.
They stayed at the Millennium Hotel, opposite the US embassy in Grosvenor Square, and met Mr Litvinenko there again on November 1st. They then returned to Moscow along with several other Russian acquaintances on November 3rd.
Subsequent tests have shown that the Transaero aircraft was not contaminated by polonium-210, nor was the hotel where Mr Lugovoi stayed on his first visit.
But traces have been found on two British Airways 767s which flew Mr Lugovoi back to London on the 25th and 31st, and at the Sheraton Park Lane and Millennium hotels, where he stayed on his two final visits. Significant quantities are thought to have been found at the Sheraton. Mr Lugovoi stayed there a week before November 1st, which is believed to be the date Mr Litvinenko was poisoned.
Mr Lugovoi's business partner, Dmitri Kovtun, has said that he also met Mr Litvinenko on October 16th, and again at the Millennium Hotel on November 1st.
"He was slightly tense, there was a slight sense of paranoia about him," Mr Kovtun said. Another associate, Vyacheslav Sokolenko, also met Mr Litvinenko at the Millennium Hotel.