MOSCOW—Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday the Litvinenko affair was damaging ties with Britain, which sent detectives to Moscow as part of the investigation into the ex-KGB spy's death by poisoning.
Lavrov said insinuations in Britain of high-level Russian involvement in Litvinenko's death were "unacceptable", adding: "It is of course damaging our relations."
A small group of British police officers arrived at Domodedovo airport to begin widening their probe into the death of Alexander Litvinenko, who died in a London hospital on Nov. 23 from a lethal dose of radioactive polonium 210.
Both Russia and Britain believe Litvinenko's death should not be politicised, Lavrov added. "If there are any questions, they should be put through law enforcement agencies," Interfax quoted him as saying.
British Home Secretary (interior minister) John Reid said in Brussels that Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett had been in touch with Moscow "and they have assured us we'll get all the cooperation necessary".
Associates of Litvinenko have alleged either Kremlin involvement in his killing or that rogue elements in Russia's state security service were responsible.
Before he died Litvinenko, a former Russian state security service agent who became one of President Vladimir Putin's sharpest critics in the London-based Russian emigre community, accused Putin of ordering his death.
The Kremlin has denied any part in the killing, and Kremlin opponents also find the theory of Putin's involvement highly improbable, noting such a high-profile killing on foreign soil could only damage him.
Italy's foreign minister said he would ask Putin in Moscow on Tuesday to help the British police in their investigation.
Radiation Checks
The British detectives are likely to try to interview Russian citizens who met Litvinenko at London's Millennium Hotel on Nov. 1, the day he fell ill.
Andrei Lugovoy, a former KGB agent, says he and businessman Dmitry Kovtun met Litvinenko that day at the hotel. But Lugovoy, now back in Moscow, says they discussed a business opportunity and denies anything to do with an attempt on Litvinenko's life.
Alex Goldfarb, a London-based friend of Litvinenko, said the British investigators should see another ex-KGB agent, Mikhail Trepashkin, who had what he called "substantive information".
Trepashkin, serving a four-year sentence in an Urals prison for divulging state secrets, said in a letter last Friday that the FSB, the Russian state security service, had created a hit squad to kill Litvinenko and other enemies of the Kremlin.
Britain's Health Protection Agency said on Monday two more hotels in central London had been checked for radiation as part of the investigation. Several other locations in the capital and some aircraft have also been checked amid a public health scare.
One was the Parkes Hotel in upmarket Knightsbridge. The Sunday Times newspaper said this was where Lugovoy stayed when he visited London on his first of three trips in October.
The agency has so far tested 99 urine samples.
"The only urine sample that the agency has examined that has shown higher levels of polonium 210, relates to an adult family member (of Litvinenko)," it said.
Earlier officials said a female relative of Litvinenko—reported to be his widow Marina—had traces of polonium 210 in her urine. They said she was not in short-term danger and any long-term risk was likely to be small.
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