Russian dissidents close to Alexander Litvinenko said Saturday they were worried about coming face-to-face with Moscow investigators who plan to visit London over the ex-Soviet spy's death from radiation poisoning.
Police in Germany, meanwhile, said traces of radiation were found at two Hamburg-area homes linked to a contact of the former KGB officer, while police combed a London hotel at the centre of the investigation into his death.
A spokeswoman for Russia's prosecutor general's office told the Associated Press about the plans to send Russian investigators to London, but said there was no concrete date. She said she was not authorized to give her name to media outlets.
Some of the dissidents were concerned that the Kremlin would use its inquiries as a "pretext to harass exiles in London," said Andrei Nekrasov, a friend of Litvinenko.
He said former Russian security officer Mikhail Trepashkin, who is serving a four-year prison sentence after being convicted of divulging state secrets, had said a Kremlin agent previously ordered to monitor Litvinenko was among those appointed to investigate the killing.
British police said they had no details of the visit by Russian investigators, and it was not immediately clear whether they would be given access to exiles granted political asylum by the British government.
Wife prepared to meet Russians
Alex Goldfarb, a family friend, said he and Litvinenko's wife, Marina, were prepared to meet with Russian officials, but on the condition British police first test the investigators for traces of polonium, the deadly isotope found in Litvinenko's body.
Litvinenko, 43, died in London on Nov. 23 after blaming President Vladimir Putin for his poisoning in a deathbed message — an accusation the Kremlin has vehemently denied.
German police said Saturday they found traces of radiation at two Hamburg area homes linked to Dmitry Kovtun, a Russian businessman who was at a London hotel gathering that included Litvinenko.
Traces were found at the Hamburg apartment of Kovtun's ex-wife, and an initial scan yielded contamination at his former mother-in-law's home in Haselau, west of the port city.
Investigations in Britain have focused on the Pine Bar at London's Millennium Hotel in Mayfair, where Litvinenko held a morning meeting over tea and gin with three fellow Russians on Nov.1 — the day he fell ill.
Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper said police were testing a teacup and dishwasher at the hotel for signs of radiation.
Litvinenko met with Andrei Lugovoi, also an ex-Soviet agent, Kovtun and Vyacheslav Sokolenko, head of a private Russian security firm, in the hotel's intimate, blond oak-paneled bar. All three men have denied involvement in the ex-spy's death.
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