Lugovoy, Andrey Konstantinovich

(1966– )

   Politician. A former member of the KGB and its post-Soviet Russian counterparts, Andrey Lugovoy left the security services in 1996 to serve as head of personal security for Yegor Gaydar. In the ensuing years, he built a large private security firm. On 1 November 2006, he met with Aleksandr Litvinenko in London; Litvinenko fell ill from polonium poisoning later that day and died shortly thereafter. A subsequent investigation resulted in a request that Lugovoy be extradited to Great Britain to give evidence in the case. Russian law does not permit extradition and so Russia did not comply with the request, and Lugovoy, who denied his guilt but claimed British intelligence had attempted to recruit him to kill Litvinenko, converted the publicity around the case into a successful run for the State Duma on the ticket of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia. In office, he has lobbied for stricter punishments against dissidents in Russia.