Litvinenko death suspect: an inadvertent suicide

MOSCOW, April 8 (UPI) -- A suspect in the death, by polonium poisoning, of ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko suggested Wednesday the death may have been an inadvertent suicide.

Dmitry Kovtun, in a rare press conference in Moscow Wednesday prior to giving video evidence to a British court of inquiry in Litvinenko's 2006 death in London, said, "It was an accident. I am more than certain he dealt with polonium without even knowing it. It might have been a leak and polonium was accumulating in his body gradually. I don't know whether he had it on him or someone gave it to him. It's entirely possible he carried something with him and polonium gradually accumulated in his organism, and led to his death."

Litvininko, a former Russian intelligence officer and critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died of exposure to the radioactive substance. He accused Putin of arranging his death, and although the Kremlin denied involvement, it refused to extradite Kovtun and Andrei Lugovoy, the two men last seen with Litvinenko as they dined in a London hotel. Litvinenko died after drinking tea containing polonium.

Police discovered a "massive trail" of trace amounts of polonium that followed the paths Kovtun and Lugovoy took around London.

The incident clouded relations between London and Moscow at the time, and although Britain initially chose not to establish an inquiry into Litvinenko's death, it changed course after relations between Russia and the West further eroded in 2014 with the conflict in Ukraine.