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Berezovsky Testifies
Kommersant obtained yesterday a shorthand report of the interview that political emigrant Boris Berezovsky gave to RF General Prosecutor’s investigator Alexander Otvodov a month ago. Otvodov is investigating the poisonous killing of FSB former officer Alexander Litvinenko.
But not all questions posed to Berezovsky in London on March 31 were directly related to Alexander Litvinenko. The shorthand report of the interview (available in Russian at www.kommersant.ru/articles/2007/berezovsky.html) shows Russia’s prosecutors were interested not only in Litvinenko’s murder by polonium 210. Another highlight was the data related to business of Berezovsky and of his relatives, his contacts with political emigrant and Yukos holder Leonid Nevzlin and even with journalist Elena Tregubova (Tregubova has sought political asylum in Britain), their phone numbers and whereabouts.
Asked by Otvodov who might have wanted to kill Litvinenko and urged to provide proofs should any definite names be given, Berezovsky said there was no way to obtain polonium 210 in such quantity without involvement of state structures, the more so to arrange technology of not only receiving it but also of delivering it to another country. “Once it emerged that it was the polonium and that polonium was so hard to discover, those arguments have covered my previous thought of Putin’s non-involvement. Using exactly polonium leaves no doubts it was the state machine.”
Berezovsky named Andrey Lugovoy as the probable killer. “The polonium track is after Lugovoy across all Europe, passing even my office,” Berezovsky explained. Another argument is that Lugovoy refused to go to London to be questioned by Scotland Yard, though Berezovsky promised to pay up the best lawyers. “These two facts are the strongest arguments for me [showing] that Lugovoy is one of those, who killed Sasha, or the one who killed Sasha,” Berezovsky said.
Berezovsky promised yesterday his interview and the interview of Ichkeria’s Foreign Minister Akhmed Zakaev given in Scotland Yard to investigator Otvodov would be soon available via Alexander Litvinenko Justice Foundation at litvinenko.org.uk.
“Nowadays, two mutually exclusive stories of Sasha’s killing exist in Russia and worldwide,” Berezovsky explained. “The first one is he was killed by order of the Kremlin. The second one is the murder was committed by Berezovsky and by people linked to me. I think that, in this situation, of vital significance is making investigation transparent at most and giving to people the access to actual information instead of the falsified leaks via the Internet compromising sites. I would like to draw particular attention that this interview and other documents about the progress in investigation that will be released via the Foundation’s site have been certified by Scotland Yard, i.e. they are official and absolutely reliable documents. And everything that Russia’s party had done till yesterday is direct falsification.”
Andrey Lugovoy, whom Boris Berezovsky linked to Litvinenko’s murder, refused to comment yesterday. “Berezovsky said nothing new; it was just another rehashing of previous statements. Once again, he voiced his personal interpretation of the event and I simply don’t want to comment anew,” Lugovoy explained.
kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of May 02, 2007
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