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| Former KGB officer Andrei Lugovoi eyes the post of mayor as Sochi [GALLO/GETTY] |
Andrei Lugovoi, the prime suspect in the killing of Alexander Litvinenko, a Kremlin critic, may run for mayor of the Russian resort of Sochi, which will host the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Leaders of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) said Lugovoi is their most likely candidate to run in the election, which will be held on April 26.
The new mayor of the Black Sea resort will have a strong influence on how to spend billions of dollars earmarked for the Winter Olympics.
Lugovoi, a former KGB officer, was elected to parliament for LDPR in 2007.
The party, led by the flamboyant Vladimir Zhirinovsky, has 40 seats in the 450-seat lower house.
Chief suspect
British prosecutors have named Lugovoi as their chief suspect in the 2006 radiation poisoning of Litvinenko in London, but Russia has refused to hand him over.
Lugovoi, who met with Litvinenko hours before he fell ill, has denied involvement in the death.
Marina Litvinenko, the Kremlin critic's widow, has said she will travel the globe to call for a boycott of the games if Lugovoi is elected city mayor.
She said his election would be "an affront to all people of good will, who are looking forward to the 2014 Winter Olympics".
"In that case I would call for a boycott of the games. I would personally go from country to country urging people not to go to an event hosted by a murderer."
Litvinenko, a renegade member of the Russian secret services, who angered many former colleagues, died in a London hospital after ingesting radioactive polonium-210.
On his deathbed, he accused then-President Vladimir Putin of being behind his killing, charges the Kremlin angrily denied.
Lugovoi, a businessman with a taste for pinstriped suits and bright ties, has held numerous news conferences and given lengthy radio interviews alleging that the British secret services, Kremlin foes and the underworld all had reasons to kill Litvinenko.
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