Litvinenko knew no secrets - Putin

MOSCOW, Feb 1 (Reuters) President Vladimir Putin, accused by former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko of ordering his murder, said the ex-agent knew no official secrets and had no reason to flee Russia.

Litvinenko, a London-based Kremlin critic, died from radiation poisoning in hospital last year. The Kremlin has dismissed the allegations as nonsense.

During an annual news conference, Putin said Litvinenko had been sacked from Russia's security services and prosecuted for abusing his position and stealing explosives.

''But there was no need to flee anywhere. He did not carry any secrets at all,'' Putin said.

''Whatever negative comments he had about his old job, he had already said everything. There could be nothing new in his words.

Only an investigation can establish what happened.'' Litvinenko became a close friend of Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, a businessman who fell foul of the Kremlin and left Russia for London in 2000 where he leads a dissident group of vocal opponents to Putin.

''As far as those people who try to harm Russia, we all know who they are,'' Putin told journalists in an apparent reference to Berezovsky.

''These are people hiding from the Russian justice system for crimes ... mainly in the economic sphere. They are so-called runaway oligarchs.'' Russian media and politicians have argued that it was Berezovsky who had most to gain from Litvinenko's murder by trying to discredit Putin.

''But I do not believe all that much in the conspiracy theory,'' Putin said, adding that Russia's strength as a state enabled him to dismiss such allegations.

British detectives investigating Litvinenko's death said yesterday they had handed a file on the case to prosecutors.

REUTERS AKJ PM1758