Russian witness denies link to Litvinenko murder

A Russian witness at the centre of an international investigation into the poisoning of ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko has denied involvement in the murder and hit back at British media for portraying him as a monster.

"I have absolutely no connection with the poisoning, had no connection and, I hope, will have no connection to it," Andrei Lugovoy said in a telephone interview late on Thursday from an isolated unit at a Moscow hospital that treated the victims of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Mr Litvinenko's slow, agonising death in a London hospital and his deathbed statement accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of the murder have prompted a five-nation police investigation and strained relations between London and Moscow. The Kremlin has dismissed Mr Litvinenko's allegations as "nonsense".

Mr Lugovoy, a former KGB bodyguard for the Kremlin elite, has attracted attention because he was one of two men who met Mr Litvinenko in London on the day Mr Litvinenko fell ill with radiation poisoning. Mr Lugovoy has been staying for at least two weeks at Moscow's Hospital No. 6 under tight security with a second Russian witness who met Mr Litvinenko in London, Dmitry Kovtun. Visiting British detectives have questioned both men.

The hospital has a unit for treating radiation victims but Mr Lugovoy refused to say whether he himself had been contaminated with polonium 210, the substance that led to Mr Litvinenko's death.

He said that his health was "normal" and "not in danger", adding: "I have never said anywhere that I was poisoned with polonium."

"I have been made into some sort of monster in Britain," he said, adding that he was angry at "wild reports" that he was a suspect in an investigation being made by British detectives.

He said he was a witness and he met British and Russian investigators in Moscow without his lawyers.

Mr Lugovoy, who studied in a top Moscow military academy before entering the KGB, would not speculate about who killed Mr Litvinenko: "I don't want to give my interpretation."

He added: "You can say all you want, but I am not really a very talkative person after my upbringing and my experience of life in state service and business."

He said he had known Mr Litvinenko casually for about 10 years and last year Mr Litvinenko called him offering contacts in London. They had about 10 meetings in the course of a year.

"(Mr) Litvinenko was acting as a middleman in my contacts with representatives of British business," he said. "We were having contact with Erinys."