Polonium murder suspect eyes Russian presidency
MOSCOW (AFP) — The ex-KGB agent Britain accuses of using radioactive polonium to murder an exiled Kremlin critic said Monday that he would like to become Russian president next year.
"Like any citizen I would like to be president," Andrei Lugovoi, the main suspect in the killing last year in London of Alexander Litvinenko, said, Interfax news agency reported.
Russia holds elections on March 2, 2008, to replace President Vladimir Putin, who is to step down at the end of his second consecutive term.
Lugovoi, whom Russia refuses to extradite to Britain, is already running for a parliamentary seat in elections scheduled for December. A seat would guarantee him immunity under Russian law.
The leader of the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party (LDPR), which is promoting Lugovoi, said his candidacy showed Britain that Russia would never back down.
"I propose Lugovoi to be second on the LDPR list because Andrei is the point man in a historic confrontation between our country and Britain," party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky told about 150 delegates at a pre-election congress on Monday.
Zhirinovsky accused Britain of "cheek" in insisting on Lugovoi's extradition when this was barred under the Russian constitution. "This is our reply," he said.
Lugovoi had place of honour at the party congress, joining the outspoken and often ultra-nationalist Zhirinovsky on the podium.
Lugovoi allegedly used deadly polonium to poison Litvinenko, a former secret services agent who was given asylum in Britain after denouncing what he claimed were acts of terrorism and other crimes by Putin's administration.
