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UK blocks access to investigation into death of Russian businessman, says embassy

Russian businessman Nikolai Glushkov was found dead at his London home on March 12

LONDON, August 14. /TASS/. The British authorities are blocking access to investigation into the death of Russian businessman Nikolai Glushkov, the Russian Embassy in London said on Tuesday.

"The British authorities fail to comply with their international commitments and deny the Russian side access to materials of investigation into the death of a national of our country, which is qualified here as murder," the embassy said.

It emphasized that more than five months after the murder of Glushkov the case is still kept out of the public eye and the investigation itself is excessively stalled for no apparent reasons.

"Such defiance of rules of international law, besides not only in this matter, seems to have become standard for the official London," it stated.

Search for black van

On Tuesday, the press service of Scotland Yard issued an appeal to anyone with information on the murder of the Russian businessmen, asking the public to help identify the driver of the Volkswagen van spotted at Glushkov’s house on Clarence Avenue on March 11. An image of the vehicle from a CCTV camera was uploaded on its website. Scotland Yard said 286 witness statements and 1,086 exhibits have been seized in the murder case as of now.

Glushkov’s murder

Nikolai Glushkov was found dead at his London home on March 12. The Metropolitan Police said he had died from compression to the neck. At the same time, according to media reports, the businessman was strangled with a dog lead so investigators believe that the killer could have aimed at giving his death the appearance of suicide.

On March 16, Russia’s Investigative Committee initiated a criminal case over Glushkov’s murder.

In the 1990s, Glushkov was deputy managing director at Russia’s flag air carrier Aeroflot and worked for Berezovsky’s LogoVAZ car company. In 2000, he was arrested over the embezzlement of Aeroflot’s funds, and later charged with fraud and money laundering. In 2004, he was sentenced to three years and three months behind bars but was released in the courtroom having served the term in custody.

In recent years, Glushkov had been living in the United Kingdom after being granted political asylum in 2010. In March 2017, Moscow’s Savelovsky District Court handed him a second eight-year sentence in absentia for the embezzlement of Aeroflot’s funds.