RUSSIA:Russian president Vladimir Putin has urged British authorities not to provoke a political scandal following the death of Alexander Litvinenko.
Instead of defending his administration from allegations that it was behind the poisoning, Mr Putin went on the offensive against both the British government and friends of Mr Litvinenko, who published a letter purporting to be his final thoughts.
He pointed out that Britain has a responsibility to protect Russian citizens in the United Kingdom, irrespective of their political views. He also warned against British authorities creating scandals that had nothing to do with reality.
"There is no ground for speculation that this is a violent death.
"Anyway, we believe our British colleagues, including law enforcement officials, understand their responsibility for protecting citizens living in the UK, including Russian Federation citizens, irrelevant of their political view when they are in Britain," he said.
"So I would hope British authorities would not contribute to the instigation of political scandals. It has nothing to do with reality," he said, offering to provide any assistance his country could offer in the current investigation.
"I would extend my condolences to the family of Mr Litvinenko," said President Putin from Helsinki, where he was attending an European Union and Russia Summit. He described the death as "tragic" and insisted he deplored the circumstances surrounding it.
President Putin also cast doubt on the reliability of a note, allegedly written by Mr Litvinenko on his death bed, which was released in London yesterday. It claims the attempt on his life had been ordered by the Kremlin.
"Regarding the note, if this note really appeared before the death of Litvinenko I wonder why it wasn't published while he was alive. Now, if it appeared after his death, then naturally I don't think there are any comments we can make.
"Those who did it are not God, and Mr Litvinenko is not Lazarus. So unfortunately, tragic deaths are used for political provocations," he said. His condemnation of the death was repeated in Moscow, where the SVR, Russia's foreign intelligence service has explicitly denied any role, insisting it would not wish to damage relations with Britain.
Other Kremlin aides emphasised that deaths of government critics seemed to coincide with high-profile international appearances by President Putin. Speaking to reporters in Helsinki, Sergei Yastrzhembsky asked "who benefits?" from these killings, insisting that Russia was a victim of a deliberate conspiracy to discredit the government.
Throughout Russia, the death has been widely reported in the media, though without topping the headlines. Instead, the failure of the EU and Russia to start talks on a new partnership agreement was higher up the news agenda, while a Duma vote on next year's Russian budget also featured prominently.
In Moscow, the Russian businessman who also met Mr Litvinenko on the day he is believed to have fallen ill has spoken out, insisting he had nothing to do with the poisoning.
Andrey Lugovoy, who was once in the KGB along with Mr Litvnineko, insisted that he knew the Kremlin critic as a business contact and had no reason whatsover to do him harm.
He said that although he met Mr Litvinenko with his colleague Dmitry Kovtun in a London hotel on the afternoon of November 1st, they had in fact travelled to the city to watch the Moscow team CSKA play Arsenal.