Moscow Won't Extradite Spy Poison Suspects

Russia will not extradite possible suspects in the poisoning of former spy Alexander Litvinenko to Britain, the prosecutor general said Tuesday.

"If they want to arrest them it would be impossible, they are citizens of Russia and the Russian constitution makes that impossible," prosecutor Yuri Chaika told reporters.

The comments came as a team of British investigators is in Moscow to collect information on Litvinenko's mysterious death after being contaminated with a rare radioactive element.

Chaika said Russian prosecutors would cooperate with the British officers, but declined to provide further details on the probe.

Litvinenko, 43, died Nov. 23 in London, and doctors found polonium-210, a rare radioactive substance, in his body.

In a deathbed accusation, he blamed President Vladimir Putin for the poisoning. The Kremlin has vehemently denied the accusations.

Chaika also confirmed that a potentially central figure in the case, another former Russian agent who met with Litvinenko in London on Nov. 1 — the day Litvinenko believed he was poisoned — is hospitalized.

Andrei Lugovoi traveled to London three times over the month before Litvinenko's death and met with Litvinenko four times, according to Russian media.

A former KGB officer, Lugovoi told Ekho Moskvy radio that he had known Litvinenko for a decade, dating back to Lugovoi's tenure as head of security for ORT television, which was controlled at the time by Kremlin-connected tycoon Boris Berezovsky. He said Litvinenko had contacted him from London about a year ago with some business-related proposals, and that they had met intermittently in London since then.

Lugovoi underwent tests for radiation last week in Moscow and said Friday that he was clean, the Kommersant reported. But on Tuesday it quoted the agent-turned-businessman's lawyer Andrei Romashov as saying that Lugovoi, his wife and three children had checked into a hospital this week for further tests. The entire family had been in London on Nov. 1 for a soccer match between CSKA Moscow and Arsenal.

"He's being treated in a hospital," Chaika said. "Everything will depend on the doctors' opinion. If doctors allow a conversation with him, he will be questioned."

Lugovoi told the ITAR-Tass news agency that he was undergoing special tests for possible radiation contamination, and that the results would be ready in a few days.

He said he was prepared to answer all the British investigators' questions.

"I intend to fully satisfy their interest and am waiting for an invitation from the law enforcement organs," he was quoted as saying.

"Once I give all the necessary testimony to the law enforcement organs, I intend to publicly put an end to (speculation) about my supposed involvement in this story that has caused such a stir," he said.

The case has further strained already tense relations between Russia and Britain, which has infuriated the Kremlin by giving asylum to tycoon and fierce Kremlin critic Boris Berezovsky and Chechen rebel envoy Akhmed Zakayev in addition to Litvinenko, a former Federal Security Service officer.

Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said he would discuss the case with Putin when the two meet Tuesday in Moscow. An Italian contact of Litvinenko who met with him the day he fell ill, Mario Scaramella, has tested positive for traces of the same radioactive isotope that doctors say killed the Russian agent.

British experts are conducting radiation checks in the British Embassy in Moscow, a spokesman said on condition of anonymity in line with embassy policy. He said the checks were a "a purely precautionary measure," similar to checks conducted in public places in London.

Lawyers for another former Federal Security Service officer, Mikhail Trepashkin, meanwhile appealed to the British investigators to meet with their client, who is being held in a prison in central Russia. The lawyers said Monday that he has key evidence in the Litvinenko case and that investigators should collect testimony from him as soon as possible, saying his life is in danger.

Trepashkin, who is serving a four-year sentence after being convicted of revealing state secrets, reportedly said in a letter from prison that he had warned Litvinenko several years ago about a government-sponsored death squad that intended to kill him and other Kremlin opponents.

The British investigators, however, will not be allowed to see Trepashkin because he was convicted of divulging state secrets and cannot meet with representatives of foreign governments, prison service spokesman Alexander Sidorov told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for former Russian Prime Minister Yegor Gaidar said Tuesday that Russian doctors had been unable to diagnose his mysterious illness. They say they suspect poisoning but are unable to detect a toxic substance, aide Valery Natarov said.

Gaidar, a 50-year-old economist who served briefly as prime minister in the 1990s under President Boris Yeltsin and is a leader of a Russian liberal opposition party, began vomiting and fainted during a conference in Ireland on Nov. 24 — the day after Litvinenko died — and was rushed into intensive care at a hospital.

Doctors concluded Gaidar's condition "did not correspond to any disease known to medicine and a toxic factor was possible," Natarov told the AP. Irish doctors had concluded he was not poisoned by a radioactive substance, but said his health had suffered "radical changes."

Gaidar was discharged Monday and was feeling "quite well," but would remain under doctors' supervision, Natarov said.