MOSCOW, February 20 - RAPSI. British investigators have ignored Russia's requests regarding their probe into the documentary about Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin said on Wednesday.

The documentary was shown on December 23 on the Rossiya TV channel and claims that the businessman may be linked to several high-profile crimes, such as an attempted explosion at former Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's headquarters on November 21, 2004, and the death of former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko in 2006.

Bastrykin said that it is tough to investigate a crime when the suspect is outside Russia and especially in Britain, which is not the easiest country to cooperate with.
"They are simply ignoring our requests concerning a certain high-profile case that involves the poisoning of a certain individual," he said.

Berezovsky was a close friend of Alexander Litvinenko.

A former FSB agent, Litvinenko fled to the UK in 2000 and died on November 23, 2006 at the age of 44 after having tea with his former colleagues Andrei Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun in London's Millennium Hotel. Doctors announced that they had found high levels of polonium-210 in his body. The official cause of death has not been published.

Lugovoy is the main suspect in the murder, according to the UK. Former KGB officer Dmitry Kovtun has also been accused of involvement in his death.

Berezovsky, who is wanted by Russia on charges of fraud and deception, has been hiding in the UK since 2000. In 2003, a British court refused to extradite him.