Irkutsk, 26 March: State Duma deputy Andrey Lugovoy believes that the conclusions of US journalist Edward Epstein about the cause of the death of former Federal Security Service officer Aleksandr Litvinenko in London are right.

"Epstein, a journalist of The New York Sun, believes that Litvinenko poisoned himself, as he was involved in polonium smuggling. The article has produced quite a stir. To be honest, I have never met the journalist in person; I only talked to him by phone and answered his questions via e-mail. I liked the way he was asking questions because they were not general ones. The journalist was carrying out an investigation and, I believe, he has come up to the right conclusions. My attitude to this is quite positive," Lugovoy said at a briefing in Irkutsk on Wednesday.

"The media fuss around this case will disappear, and journalists who are interested in the topic, will think about it. They will begin digging through statements made by [London-based Litvinenko friend Alex] Goldfarb, [Russian exiled tycoon Boris] Berezovskiy, and Litvinenko's widow [Marina] and will try solving the Rubik's cubes. Epstein has solved one of those Rubik's cubes," Lugovoy said.

He added that many journalists "confuse figures without going into details; they ask questions like: 'How do you explain that polonium was wherever you were?'

"I was shocked when charges were brought against me for the whole world," Lugovoy said. [Passage omitted: well-known facts about Litvinenko's death].