"A bad detective novel or parody of a detective novel"

Russian Mayak state radio's "Panorama" programme at 1116 gmt on 31 May discussed the appearance of Litvinenko case suspect Andrey Lugovoy at a news conference in Moscow earlier in the day. During the news conference Lugovoy had presented his own theories about who could be responsible for Litvinenko's murder in November 2006.

The three guests on the programme were Konstantin Simonov, director of the Centre for Political Studies, Mikhail Leontyev, Channel One TV commentator and editor of Profil magazine, and Gennadiy Gudkov, a member of the State Duma's security committee.

Simonov began by describing the whole affair as a "a bad detective novel or parody of a detective novel". He described Lugovoy as a "very naive victim" and called the reaction of the British authorities to Litvinenko's murder "hysterical".

"What worries me the most is that a paper tiger has been built out of the affair and we are both slinging mud at each other, them against us through Berezovskiy and us against them through Lugovoy."

He later added that the "hysteria" in London was not just confined to the Litvinenko case.

"It you look at recent articles about Russia in general, you will see that the favourite theme of energy has re-emerged. Energy as a weapon...The Litvinenko affair is like a symbol of a terrible Russia, a Russia trying to grip Europe by the throat."
He went on to criticize a "paranoid" article in the Daily Mail by Britain's former ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, describing Gazprom as "Russia's new secret weapon".

In Leontyev's view, there was "nothing surprising" in the allegations Lugovoy made at the news conference about tycoon Boris Berezovskiy's activities and Litvinenko's links to British intelligence. "All the figures in the Litvinenko case, including Litvinenko himself, were either avowed agents of the British special services, it could not be otherwise...or else they were the subjects of very close attention from them. That means that whatever the case, these people, the British special services, guided the situation from start to finish."

Asked what the point of that would have been for British intelligence, Leontyev replied that it was part of an "information war against the current Russian authorities which do not suit British intelligence". In order to counter this information war, Leontyev said, Russia needed to wage its own war. He added that domestically the war was being won and "99 per cent" of Russians did not believe that Putin was behind Litvinenko's death.

Gudkov said it was "as clear as day" that British intelligence would have taken an interest in Berezovskiy's entourage, "something written in the beginners textbook for spies". However, he dismissed any suggestion that Berezovskiy himself may have been working for British intelligence. As for Lugovoy's claim that he himself had been recruited by MI6, Gudkov said Russia's counterintelligence service should investigate further. He ruled out any official Russian involvement in Litvinenko's death and suggested it may have been used by British intelligence "to settle scores" with Russia over the spy rock scandal.

Source: Radio Mayak, Moscow (in Russian), June 1,  2007