MOSCOW: Russia's internal security service, the FSB, opened an espionage investigation on Friday after the man wanted by Britain for the murder of ex-agent Alexander Litvinenko pointed the finger at Britain's MI6 intelligence agency.

In a statement the FSB said it had opened the case “after analysis of statements by Russian businessman Andrei Lugovoi and additional information received from him on the espionage activities of British intelligence services” in Russia.

The statement from the FSB, successor organisation to the Soviet KGB, gave no further details on who was suspected in the probe and did not explicitly state that the probe related to the poisoning death in London last year of Litvinenko, a former FSB agent.

However it appeared to refer to “material” that Lugovoi said at a news conference last month he would be presenting to Russian security services on the Litvinenko case. Moscow and London have been engaged in a diplomatic tug-of-war since British prosecutors last month announced they were seeking Lugovoi's extradition from Russia for killing Litvinenko.—AFP