Russia asks Britain to quiz tycoon on ex-spy death

MOSCOW, Dec 29 (Reuters) Russian prosecutors have asked Britain to question exiled tycoon Boris Berezovsky as part of the investigation into the death of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko, Interfax news agency said today.

Interfax quoted an unidentified source in the prosecutor-general's office as saying Russia had s ent a request to Britain's Crown Prosecution Service asking for the Russian businessman and others to be questioned.

''There is a request to carry out a series of investigative actions including the questioning of a large number of people, in particular businessman Boris Berezovsky who lives in London,'' the source said, according to Interfax.

A spokeswoman for the prosecutor-general's office declined to comment on the Interfax report. A spokeswoman for Britain's Crown Prosecution Service said: ''We haven't yet received anything from the Russian authorities.'' Litvinenko, a former Russian state security officer, died on November. 23 in London from radiation poisoning caused by ingesting polonium 210. British police say he was murdered.

In a deathbed statement, he accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering his murder -- an allegation dismissed by the Kremlin. Since then, British police have been to Moscow and questioned Russian witnesses.

Berezovsky, an acquaintance of Litvinenko's, has become the Kremlin's highest-profile enemy. He has been demonised by state television, which has accused him of a range of shortcomings.

A loquacious former scientist, Berezovsky rose to become one of Russia's most powerful oligarchs under former President Boris Yeltsin and helped Putin achieve power. He fell foul of the Kremlin under Putin and fled Russia in 2000.

He was granted political asylum in Britain in 2003 and has used his base in London to pour scorn on what he says are Putin's authoritarian practices.

''SPIN CONTROL'' Alex Goldfarb, who runs Berezovsky's Foundation for Civil Liberties in New York, told Reuters British police had already questioned Berezovsky and other people who knew Litvinenko.

''It is none of the Russian prosecutors' business: this is a British investigation and Boris is fully cooperating,'' Goldfarb said by telephone.

''This is clearly part of a spin control operation: they are trying to deflect attention from themselves with the different branches of the Russian authoritarian system. They are all part of the big corporation Kremlin Inc and they are trying to get away with murder,'' he said.

Russia's prosecutor-general added another twist to the murder investigation on Wednesday by saying Leonid Nevzlin, a former top manager of the YUKOS business empire, could have ordered Litvinenko's death.

Some analysts in Russia say Litvinenko's murder, and particularly its carefully orchestrated presentation to the media, was designed to discredit Putin.

Traces of radiation have been found at several sites in London, including a sushi bar where Litvinenko met contacts, a hotel he visited and the offices Berezovsky.

REUTERS LL RK2325