Kremlin critic’s alleged murder raises tensions after poisoning

COUNTER-TERROR OFFICIALS continued to investigate the alleged murder of a prominent Kremlin critic found dead at his London home a week after the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter.

Exile Nikolay Glushkov died from “compression to the neck”, a special post-mortem investigation found.

The 68-year-old Russian was discovered dead at his home in Clarence Avenue, New Malden, south-west London, on Monday, March 12.

Police initially treated the death as unexplained, but launched a murder probe after the results of the post-mortem investigation, which began on Thursday. It comes amid heightened tensions between Russia and the UK after former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were exposed to nerve agent novichok in Salisbury on March 4.

The pair yesterday remained in hospital.

The Metropolitan Police said it was not linking the two incidents, saying there was no evidence Mr Glushkov was poisoned, and reassured neighbours there were “no wider public health concerns” in relation to the investigation.

The Met’s counter-terrorism command will continue to head the probe “because of the associations Mr Glushkov is believed to have had”, it said.

Hours before the Met announced the murder probe, the Investigative Committee of Russia said it had opened criminal cases over the attempted murder of Yulia Skripal and the murder of Mr Glushkov. The committee said it would investigate in “accordance with the requirements of Russian law and international law”.

Mr Glushkov was a retired financial director who had lived at his address for two years, Scotland Yard said on Friday. He was outspoken after the death of his close friend Boris Berezovsky – another enemy of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Regarding the Skripal case, Prime Minister Theresa May said Britain and its allies would consider their next move and that the national security council was due to meet early this week. In interview with The Mail on

Sunday, Russian ambassador Alexander Yakovenko accused Mrs May of using the crisis to improve her image at the expense of relatons with Moscow and threatened retaliation. “In case of further unfriendly actions against Russia, the Russian side reserves the right to take further retaliatory measures –this is what the British Ambassador was told on Saturday,” he said.

Mr Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, yesterday remained in a critical condition in hospital, while Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, who was exposed to the Novichok nerve agent while responding to the incident, was no longer considered critical.

Russia reserves the right to take further retaliatory measures. Russian ambassador Alexander Yakovenko in a newspaper interview yesterday.