Litvinenko gave materials on YUKOS case to Nevzlin

At the end of November, Leonid Nevzlin told in his interview to the British The Times newspaper that not long before his death Alexander Litvinenko gave him certain materials, which "shed light on most important aspects of the YUKOS case." Mr. Nevzlin promised to hand the file collected by the ex-FSB officer to Scotland Yard investigators.

Thereafter, information appeared in Israeli press that Russian authorities were trying to exchange Nevzlin for four Israelis who are not permitted to serve their sentences at home until Israel does not deport Nevzlin to Russia.

British The Daily Telegraph newspaper asserts that Litvinenko possessed a file in relation to Alexei Pichugin, former security head at YUKOS who was sentenced in 2005 to 20 years of prison on murder allegations. A couple of weeks before his death, Litvinenko visited Israel, where he discussed the murders related to the YUKOS case.

We mark here that the operative-investigatory groups of the Russian General Prosecutor's Office who are investigating "Nevzlin's case" and "Litvinenko's case" have united their work. The Office's Administration for mass media cooperation has reported on the fact.

Currently, the General Prosecutor's Office is undertaking investigatory actions to check the data on Russian citizens' poisoning with toxic substances. Allegedly, the obtained data indicates links between the criminal case on murdering of ex-FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko in the territory of Great Britain and also on an attempt on businessman Dmitri Kovtun, with the criminal case on accusing a number of top managers of the YUKOS Oil Company (OC) of committing crimes against life and health of citizens.

According to the General Prosecutor's Office, the investigation possesses data on detection by the victims of mercury vapour, at the levels essentially exceeding exposure limits, in their cars, apartments, country houses and offices located both in Moscow and in London.

A version is checked that the organizers of these crimes may be the same persons who are now in international search for committing heavy and especially heavy crimes, one of whom, the General Prosecutor's Office think, is Leonid Nevzlin, co-chair of the YUKOS OC.

Leonid Nevzlin's advocate thinks these allegations to be a mere provocation, the RIA "Novosti" reports.

Alex Goldfarb, head of the Civil Freedoms Foundation, in his turn, treated the declaration of the General Prosecutor's Office as an attempt to divert attention from the main suspects in "Litvinenko's case" - Andrei Lugovoj and Dmitri Kovtun, the "Gazeta.Ru" reports.

Disgraced oligarch Boris Berezovskiy has stated: "By suspecting Leonid Nevzlin, the General Prosecutor's Office is strengthening in the West a firm opinion that Mr. Putin personally stands behind Litvinenko's death," the "Echo Moskvy" reports.

"The prosecutors, trying to please the Kremlin, have got into position, when the whole world laughs at them," Ahmed Zakaev, a friend of deceased Litvinenko, has stated. He marked that he "was not surprised" that the RF General Prosecutor's Office "is trying to link the most resonant crime of the 21st century - Litvinenko's poisoning" with the so-called YUKOS case, the "Vek" informs.

Advocate Andrei Romashov who represents the interests of businessman Andrei Lugovoj, a witness in "Litvinenko's case", does not have any information on possible Nevzlin's copartnership in Litvinenko's poisoning.