Litvinenko's widow refutes MI6 claim

London: The widow of the murdered Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko has denied new claims her husband worked for MI6.

Marina Litvinenko said the allegation, from British diplomatic and intelligence sources, was "nonsense".

"My husband was never an agent for MI6," she told The Sunday Telegraph. "He was a critic of the Russian government but he spoke out openly. He was well-known. And his special area was organised crime, not intelligence.

"He was not the kind of person who would be useful to the British security services."

According to a newspaper report, which was given wide circulation in the Russian media on Saturday, the former KGB officer was recruited by Sir John Scarlett, the head of MI6 who was once based in Moscow. Litvinenko was said to have received a £2,000 (Dh15,059) monthly retainer.

But Marina said her husband worked as a consultant to British businessmen who wanted to trade with Russia and also worked for the civil liberties foundation set up by the billionaire Russian exile Boris Berezovsky, who lives in Berkshire.

Poisoned

Her 44-year-old husband, who was poisoned with radioactive polonium-210 in London a year ago this week, also worked as an adviser to police pursuing Russian criminals in countries including Spain and Georgia.

Alex Goldfarb, a friend of Litvinenko and co-author with his widow of a book, published in June, on his murder said: "Litvinenko was living in England. I don't see what value he could have been to the British security services. Putin's regime believes there is a British conspiracy against Russia and that Russian exiles in England are working for the security services. They are paranoid."

The fresh allegations echo those made by Andre Lugovoi - the ex-KGB bodyguard who British police believe slipped polonium-210 into Litvinenko's tea at the Millennium hotel in London on November 1 last year.

Lugovoi claimed Litvinenko tried to recruit him to supply information to MI6. Dmitri Kovtun, a Russian businessman who was with Lugovoi and Litvinenko at the Millennium hotel, said yesterday: "I think Litvinenko was working for MI6. They were interested in working with a man such as Litvinenko."

Marina said in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph she feared she and her 13-year-old son Anatoly would be the next targets for her husband's killers.

The widow, who lives with her son in a safe-house in southwest London, said: "I am worried they will try to get me. But my biggest concern is for Anatoly. I have to be careful every day. If anything suspicious happens, if I see somebody I don't know three times on the same day, then I have to tell the police."

Marina, 44, flew back to London yesterday from Portugal, where she urged EU ministers to back Britain's efforts to secure the extradition of Lugovoi.

Campaign

In the past few months she has visited the United States and seven European countries as part of her campaign for her husband's murderer to be brought to justice.

Marina accused European Union governments of being "too soft" on Russia.

Lugovoi says he does not trust British justice. But Marina, who lived with her husband - whom she calls Sasha - in Muswell Hill, north London, revealed that in spring last year Lugovoi had a different view. "Sasha told me Lugovoi wanted to buy an expensive house in London and asked me if I would help him find somewhere," she said. "Lugovoi seemed happy with the British legal system then."