Poisoned ex-spy said he was told to kill Kremlin opponents

Russia's president has denied involvement.
LONDON (AP) -- An ex-KGB agent poisoned in London described in interviews before his death how he was ordered to hire assassins to neutralize potential rivals and whistle-blowers who threatened the Kremlin, according to excerpts published and broadcast Saturday.
Alexander Litvinenko, a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin's, died Thursday of heart failure after falling gravely ill from what doctors said was poisoning by a rare radioactive substance.
His highly contaminated body was released to a coroner by police late Saturday, and Home Office pathologists were expected to begin an autopsy, but experts said investigators might never pinpoint the exact source of the radioactive polonium-210 found in the spy's urine by toxicologists.
In a dramatic deathbed statement, 43-year-old Litvinenko accused Putin -- who he called "barbaric and ruthless" -- of ordering his poisoning. Putin has called the death a tragedy and denied involvement.
Interviews
Litvinenko spoke to academics James Heartfield and Julia Svetlichnaja from the University of Westminster in three interviews in April and May. The Daily Telegraph published a syndicated version of the interviews Saturday.
Litvinenko was recruited into the Soviet-era KGB and also worked for its successor, the Federal Security Service, or FSB. After the fall of communism, he said his directive was to recruit powerful businessmen who could stimulate an economic boom, and to hire assassins.
In the interviews, Litvinenko said that as a favor to a senior former colleague who was in debt to money lenders, he was told to arrest the creditors and execute them.
He said he was ordered to kill Mikhail Trepashkin, another security officer who had spoken about the FSB's activities, and to kidnap a prominent Chechen businessman .
In an interview taped with British TV journalist John Coates last year, parts of which were aired for the first time on Britain's Sky TV Saturday, Litvinenko said he raised concerns in 1997 with Putin -- then head of the FSB.
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