Alexander Litvinenko, a former serviceman of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), who once had accused his commanders of plotting to murder financier and media tycoon Boris Berezovsky, asked Britain authorities for political asylum.

Alexander Litvinenko, a former serviceman of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), who once had accused his commanders of plotting to murder financier and media tycoon Boris Berezovsky, asked Britain authorities for political asylum on his arrival in London airport "Heathrow" on Wednesday, Interfax news agency reported. It was Litvinenko, who told Berezovsky in 1998 that his commanders at FSB's anti-organized crime department had ordered him to kill the tycoon in December 1997. The investigation into Berezovsky's claims that he was the target of a murder plot was opened in April 1998 but was closed six months later for lack of evidence. After that, Berezovsky wrote a letter to Vladimir Putin, who was the head of FSB at the time, saying several FSB officers had conspired to kill him and that the service had tried to cover up the affair. Putin reacted angrily to Berezovsky's allegations against the FSB. In March 1999, military prosecutors arrested Litvinenko on allegations of abuse of power. After his release, Putin dismissed Litvinenko as insulting. Litvinenko told journalists that Russian security bodies keep continuously pursuit him and his family. According to Litvinenko, Britain authorities promised do not expel him and his family from Great Britain.