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Berezovsky wants apology from Russian TV, threatens to sue

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Russia's London-based fugitive tycoon Boris Berezovsky is demanding an apology from a state Russian television channel and threatening it with a libel suit, but Rossiya denied receiving any warning letters, a paper said.
MOSCOW, April 12 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's London-based fugitive tycoon Boris Berezovsky is demanding an apology from a state Russian television channel and threatening it with a libel suit, but Rossiya denied receiving any warning letters, a paper said.

The Gazeta.ru Web site quoted Berezovsky as saying he would sue the RTR-Planeta, a satellite version of Rossiya, and the Vesti program of the channel in a British court for a report April 1 that said Berezovsky had illegally obtained political asylum in Britain by forcing a security agent to testify he had been sent to kill him.

"Britain is a civilized country, unlike Russia," Berezovsky said. "It is common practice to send a letter first demanding a rebuttal and an apology, and such a letter has been sent."

Berezovsky's lawyer, Andrew Stevenson, told Gazeta.ru that the letter was sent April 5 and that a failure to receive a response would enable his client to file a libel suit against the TV channel two weeks later, April 19, with the Supreme Royal Court in London.

The press service of Rossiya told Gazeta.ru that the TV channel had not received any official notifications from Berezovsky or his lawyers.

"Therefore, no comment can be given at the moment," a spokesman said.

The author of the TV interview, Andrei Medvedev, declined to elaborate either, saying he had been unauthorized by the channel to comment.

The witness, who appeared on TV with his face hidden and answering to the pseudonym "Pyotr," accused 61-year-old Berezovsky of killing Alexander Litvinenko, who died of radioactive poisoning in London in November. "Pyotr" said Litvinenko, a former security officer, knew how the exiled tycoon obtained political asylum in Britain in 2003.

The Rossiya report showed "Pyotr," who lives in London, as saying that Litvinenko, allegedly his acquaintance and an associate of Berezovsky, had offered him from 2 to 40 million pounds if he testified he had been sent to London to murder the businessman who fell out with Russian authorities.

In 1998, Litvinenko himself publicly told a news conference in Moscow that he had been ordered by his superiors at the Federal Security Service (FSB) to assassinate Berezovsky, who was a senior state official at the time.

Pyotr said Berezovsky rewarded Litvinenko with financial support while he lived in London.

Litvinenko's mysterious death is still being investigated by Russian and British detectives. In his deathbed note, the former security officer blamed the Kremlin for his poisoning, but the Kremlin denied the allegations.

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