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UK feared fugitive tycoon’s potential return to Russia might spill secrets — prosecutor

Russia's Prosecutor-General says London could not let the fugitive Russian mogul, Boris Berezovsky, privy to classified information on the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, return to Russia

Boris Berezovsky Nikolai Malyshev, Vladimir Musaelyan/TASS

Boris Berezovsky

© Nikolai Malyshev, Vladimir Musaelyan/TASS

MOSCOW, April 18. /TASS/. London could not let the fugitive Russian mogul, Boris Berezovsky, privy to classified information on the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, return to Russia, Russian Prosecutor-General Yuri Chaika said at the Federation Council (upper house of parliament).

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UK refuses to cooperate over Berezovsky, Litvinenko, Skripal cases — Russian prosecutor

"The highest polonium concentration was found in Berezovsky’s office (in London). However, physically, Berezovsky could not have obtained that polonium, nor could he have created so much artificial evidence. Berezovsky acted under the control of the British special services and together with them," Chaika emphasized.

"When he (Berezovsky) decided to return to Russia, they could not let him as someone privy to secrets about an act of nuclear terrorism (against Litvinenko) return to Russia," the prosecutor-general stressed.

He highlighted that the UK’s accusations against Russian citizens Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun of allegedly being involved in Litvinenko’s murder had been trumped up. Chaika is confident that the UK will not take into account Russia’s information on the Litvinenko case. "We offered them cooperation, we sent 39 queries, even to Theresa May," he said.

He added that far from everything went smoothly for the organizers of that provocation. "They handed over the (investigation) files to our German counterparts. The German investigation shows that polonium was in London before Lugovoi’s and Kovtun’s arrival," Chaika pointed out.

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