LONDON — British police said Wednesday that they had concluded their investigation of the poisoning of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, and handed the case to prosecutors for a decision on whether to file charges.
Though authorities refused to disclose their findings, people close to Litvinenko's family said they believed authorities were leaning toward suspects in Russia as the probable perpetrators.
"From my understanding, they know where and who and how. They know exactly what happened," said one source, who had not been formally briefed on the police findings.
Prosecutors have said they will review the results of the detectives' work and determine whether it is appropriate to file charges. But if the results identify suspects in Russia, it might be moot; authorities there have already said it would be impossible under Russian law to extradite them to Britain for trial.
Litvinenko, a former colonel with the Russian security services who resigned and became a dissident in London, was killed with a massive dose of radioactive polonium-210. The poison appears to have been administered Nov. 1 in tea he drank at a London hotel while with two businessmen from Russia, Andrei Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun, both of whom formerly had ties to the Russian security services.
Lugovoy and Kovtun have denied any role in the poisoning and have said they consider themselves victims in the case.
In an interview Wednesday in his London office, exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky said he met with Lugovoy a day before Litvinenko was poisoned. Berezovsky formerly employed Lugovoy and Litvinenko and believes the Russian security services were behind the poisoning.
"Mr. Lugovoy, who now is suspected to be the killer, he was sitting in this room in front of me, and we drank wine with him. And he had not less chances to poison me in this office where we are present now than to do the same in the hotel, putting polonium to a cup of tea of my friend Alexander," Berezovsky said.
He said he had a "more or less clear answer" to why he was not targeted for poisoning, but had pledged to the police that he would not discuss the case in detail until the investigation was concluded.
"I think the main point for the British government today is that until they find all the rings of [the] chain, how it happened, starting from the place where the polonium was taken until it reached the cup of tea of Alexander, no one British is able to feel protected," Berezovsky said. "The problem now is whether this government is able to protect the population of this country from the same plot again."
