KEY POINTS:
MOSCOW - Russian businessman Dmitry Kovtun said today he was ready to help British detectives investigate the fatal radioactive poisoning of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.
Kovtun met Litvinenko at a London hotel on Nov. 1 with another Russian businessman, Andrei Lugovoy. Later that day, Litvinenko complained of feeling ill and was admitted to a London hospital shortly afterwards where he died a slow death.
British investigators visited Russia last year and questioned the two businessmen, who both spent several weeks in hospital after their return to Moscow from London.
Russia's Prosecutor-General has said the investigators want to return to Moscow to continue the murder probe.
"We are of course ready to co-operate with the investigators but in the framework of Russian law," Kovtun said in an interview to the Russia Today television channel translated into English.
In what was his first media appearance after he was questioned, Kovtun looked thinner than in earlier photos and was now bald. In pictures taken before his death, Litvinenko had also lost his hair.
Kovtun developed symptoms of radiation poisoning, according to Russian prosecutors, but there are conflicting reports about the exact state of his health.
Kovtun and Lugovoy said they would consider returning to London to help the investigation if invited.
In December, German police uncovered traces of polonium 210, the substance that killed Litvinenko, in properties Kovtun used in Hamburg. Prosecutors there are investigating him on suspicion of illegally handling radioactive material.
Kovtun denies any link to Litvinenko's death.
Lugovoy, in the same interview to Russia Today, dismissed British media reports describing him as a suspect and not a witness in the Litvinenko case.
"The allegations by the British media are not simply unfounded -- they are a lie, pure and simple. I was and I still am a witness in this case," he said.
Last week Lugovoy, a former KGB bodyguard who later worked as head of security for Russian media tycoon Boris Berezovsky, laughed off a report in the Guardian newspaper that Britain was preparing to request his extradition to stand trial for the poisoning.
Russia's constitution forbids the extradition of its citizens. A Scotland Yard spokeswoman declined to comment at the time on whether Lugovoy was the chief suspect.
Litvinenko, a Kremlin critic, issued a deathbed statement accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of killing him. The Kremlin has dismissed the allegations as nonsense.
Berezovsky, who helped Putin achieve power, fell foul of the Kremlin as the Russian leader moved to cement his authority. He fled Russia in 2000 and lives in London.
- REUTERS
