Russian Nikolai Glushkov found dead in London ‘with strangulation marks’ is linked to killer of Alexander Litvinenko
A FORMER KGB agent accused of poisoning Russian defector Alexander Litvinenko was last night linked to a Russian businessman found dead in London.
Russian airline mogul Nikolai Glushkov, 68, was found with "strangulation marks" at his home in New Malden by his daughter Natalia on Monday night.
It has now emerged Andrey Lugovoy, widely accused of murdering dissident Litvinenko with polonium, was jailed for attempting to spring Glushkov from prison in 2001.
At the time, Glushkov was behind bars for defrauding Russian airline company Aeroflot.
Lugovoy was sent down for 14 months but had his jail term cut short.
There were claims that he may have owed the FSB for getting him out and poisoning Litvinenko's tea with a radioactive cocktail could have been part of his payback.
What we know so far:
- Theresa May announced she would kick out 23 diplomats in the wake of the Sergei Skripal case.
- The Russian Embassy has responded by calling the expulsion 'unacceptable, unjustified and shortsighted'.
- The Prime Minister also confirmed government officials and members of the Royal family would not be attending the World Cup in Russia.
- Vladimir Putin ignored a deadline set by the PM to explain his involvement in the poisoning and instead warned Britain 'not to threaten a nuclear power'.
- Skripal and daughter Yulia remain in a critical condition in hospital after being exposed to a nerve agent in Salisbury on March 4.
- Another cordon has now been set up 25 miles away in Gillingham, Dorset.
- Russian exiles have now been asked by cops to help identify a mystery couple aged between 35 and 40 seen close to Skripal and his daughter before they collapsed.
- Russian exile Nikolai Glushkov was discovered dead with 'strangulation marks' on his neck on Monday night by daughter Natalia Glushkova in New Malden, South West London.
- Anti-terror cops are investigating the 68-year-old's 'unexplained' death because of the 'associations' he reportedly had.
A blue tent obscured the entrance to the terraced house in New Malden, Surrey, as anti-terror officers investigated the "unexplained death" of Glushkov.
One neighbour said: "He was a wonderful man, the best neighbour you could ever hope for. "He never said much about his past and never mentioned Putin but he told me how lucky I was to live in a democracy.
"Why would anyone want to kill a man who was no harm to anyone? Nothing could prepare us for the knock at the door at 3am and seeing police milling about in protective suits."
Glushkov had a heart condition and a recent leg operation but seemed to be recovering well.
It comes soon after ex-Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and daughter Yulia, 33, were poisoned using a nerve agent developed in Russia.
Police are probing who targeted them, with Mrs May pointing the finger at Russia and giving Vladimir Putin a deadline to explain his country's involvement.
There is no suggestion the Salisbury poisoning was linked to that of Glushkov, 68, whose home has been taken over by forensics teams investigating his death.
He also added that he feared he was on a hit list, saying: "You have the deaths of Boris and Badri over a short period of time.
"Too many bodies are happening. I would say this is a little bit too much. I don't see anyone left on it apart from me."
GLUSHKOV ON PUTIN'S RUSSIA: In his own words
On Berezovsky in 2013: "You have the deaths of Boris and Badri over a short period of time. Too many bodies are happening. I would say this is a little bit too much."
On Berezovsky suicide theory: "Boris was strangled. Either he did it himself or with the help of someone. [But] I don't believe it was suicide."
About assassination hitlist: "I don't see anyone left on it apart from me."
His friend Berezovsky was once a powerful friend of Putin, but fled to London in 2000 after falling out with the Russian President.
Glushkov lived in the UK, in a home in Kingston, South West London, after being granted political asylum in the country in 2010.
A Russian radio station reported that Glushkov had been suffering from a rare blood disease hemochromatosis, which causes your body to absorb too much iron from your food.
He was tried in absentia in Moscow, sentenced to eight years behind bars over allegations of stealing $123m from Aeroflot.
Sources say there are now more Russian agents in London than during the Cold War — many posing as businessmen in posh flats in Mayfair and Knightsbridge.
The most recent poisoning in Salisbury has chilling echoes of the murder of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006 — and the notorious poison-tipped umbrella hit on Soviet defector Georgi Markov in 1978.
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