Brits Probe Ex-Spy's Radioactive Death

Walter Litvinenko, the father of the dead former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, speaks during a media conference, flanked by family friends Alex Goldfarb, left, and Andrei Nekraskov, right, outside University College Hospital in London, Friday Nov. 24, 2006. The former Russian spy who died in an apparent poisoning signed a statement on his deathbed blaming Russian President Vladimir Putin for his death, friends said Friday. The statement, read to reporters outside the hospital where Alexander Litvinenko died late Thursday, accused the Russian leader of having "no respect for life, liberty or any civilized value." (AP Photo/Matt Dunham) (Matt Dunham - AP)

In Moscow, pro-Kremlin lawmakers pointed the finger at exiled Russian dissidents, claiming the death was part of a plot to discredit the Kremlin.

Russian lawmaker Valery Dyatlenko claimed Friday that Berezovsky, an exile whose asylum in Britain has enraged the Kremlin, may have been involved in the killing, seeking to discredit Putin.

"I think this is another game of some kind by Berezovsky," Dyatlenko said Friday on Russia's state-run Channel One television.

When reached by The Associated Press on Saturday, Berezovsky declined to comment on the accusations leveled by Dyatlenko.

In Israel, Russian exile Leonid Nevzlin said Litvinenko's death could be linked to investigations into charges laid against ex-shareholders and former owners of the Yukos oil company.

Nevzlin _ a former shareholder in the Yukos oil company _ told Israel's daily Haaretz newspaper on Friday that Litvinenko had visited him for a meeting.

He said he had passed on documents related to the campaign of criminal charges and tax claims against Yukos shareholders and officials, including now-jailed founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Nevzlin told the newspaper he feared the ex-agent's death could be connected to the probe.

Nevzlin was charged by Russian prosecutors with organizing murders, fraud and tax evasion, and lives in self-imposed exile in Israel to evade prosecution.

Polonium-210 occurs naturally and is present in the environment at very low concentrations, but can represent a radiation hazard if ingested.

Pat Troop, chief executive of the Health Protection Agency, said the high level of polonium-210 indicated Litvinenko "would either have to have eaten it, inhaled it or taken it in through a wound."

Troop said the agency was evaluating whether it was safe to perform an autopsy.

Scientists claimed small amounts of polonium-210 _ but not enough to kill someone _ were used legitimately in Britain for industrial purposes and easily available.

To be used to kill, however, "much larger amounts are required and this would have to be manmade ... from a particle accelerator or a nuclear reactor," said Medical Research Council expert Dudley Goodhead.

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Associated Press writers Maria Cheng, Jennifer Quinn and Jill Lawless in London, Steve Gutterman in Moscow and Amy Teibel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.