VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
MOSCOW

Two businessmen who met former Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko in London the day he fell ill are seeking compensation from a charity created by his widow.

Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun were questioned by investigators about the death in November of Litvinenko, who was poisoned with polonium after meeting them in a bar. They deny involvement in his death.

Litvinenko, a dissident who had asylum in Britain, blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for his death. The Kremlin denies the accusations.

Lugovoi and Kovtun, who were exposed to radiation and spent weeks in hospital, want compensation from the Litvinenko Justice Foundation, created this week by exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, Litvinenko's widow Marina and his friend Alex Goldfarb.

Goldfarb angrily dismissed the men's demands. "These two individuals deserve not a compensation but a life sentence," he said.

Meanwhile, former chess champion Garry Kasparov, now a political opposition leader in Russia, said he never eats or drinks when he flies Aeroflot and tries to avoid travel with the Russian carrier.

"If the state wants to go after me they will, but what else can I do?" he said in London.-AP