Major Update:: It seems that the investigation into the Litvinenko case is not shut down and the Lugovoi angle is not the only scenarion being investigated:

A source close to the investigation said Wednesday that a version involving Leonid Nevzlin, a core shareholder of bankrupt oil company Yukos, in the death of the former secret agent is still being investigated, along with other possibilities.

What is up with the prosecutor claiming Lugovoi is the suspect and this news about other possibilities still being investigated? Is this some kind of media game? – end update:

The posturing continues and we await the supposedly sensational revelations Andre Lugovoi has promised. The somewhat interesting news is Russia’s ‘commitment’ to try Lugovoi if Britain shows a strong enough case. My guess is Russia is being fairly honest on this, they just don’t think the British authorities have a strong case (neither do I). But it does require the prosecutors to release information to Russia which have never been publicized: like the level so of contamination in key locations, Litvinenko’s autopsy details on whether he inhaled or ingested the Po-210, etc. These details would be needed to convince Russia to prosecute. But they could also be used by Russia to bolster what ever alternative theory they have. So we shall see.

The most interesting, and misrepresented, news was regarding Lugovoi being in the UK on a fourth trip in October. Lugovoi was in London many times over the year to meet with Litvinenko – this was reported by early on and totaled around 16 trips. But the reporting implies Lugovoi hid this one trip from authorities:

The chief suspect in the murder of Russian exile Alexander Litvinenko paid a previously unreported visit to London in the weeks before his poisoning with radioactive polonium, a witness in the case told Reuters.

The witness, Yuri Felshtinsky, said police initially thought he must be mistaken when he told them he had bumped into suspect Andrei Lugovoy on London’s Piccadilly on the evening of October 12 last year.

Lugovoy, whom British authorities want to extradite from Moscow to face trial for murdering Litvinenko, has publicly acknowledged making three trips to the British capital last October, but only from October 16 onwards.

Felshtinsky is a Litvinenko ally and, in my mind, cannot be trusted on face value. And contrary to the reporting, Lugovoi has been circumspect about the details, citing his agreement with authorities to no provide details on the case. Since three trips were in the media reporting Lugovoi vould simply be commenting on the public information and not exposing the details he provide to authorities. This story is ripe for some major adjustments, if Lugovoi has been cooperating and providing details on something other than a state sponsored assassination. So I am going to go out on a limb here and predict Lugovoi did tell authorities that he was in London on Oct 12. If the story is correct, and not a plant by the Litvinenko-Berezovsky supporters. I am not implying the account is accurate.

I did take interest in Felshtinsky’s theorizing (which always exposes some insight about the one making proposing the theory):

He said Lugovoy had told him at their chance meeting that he was on a business trip and they had spent several minutes chatting. Police were surprised when Felshtinsky told them of the encounter during their investigation.

“They were quite sure I was wrong, because according to their information, Lugovoy was not in London on October 12. He had no stamp in his passport, they had no records of any kind that he was in London on October 12,” Felshtinsky said.

Felshtinsky said he faxed information to the police, including a hotel bill and a bank receipt from a cash machine, to prove he was right about the date. “I told them: ‘Look guys, sorry, you have to go deeper because I met him on October 12’.”

The U.S.-based writer said the question of how Lugovoy had come to make a previously undetected visit to Britain was potentially significant.

“Number one, he might have a different passport, he might have several passports. Number two he might be traveling under a different name. Number three, police simply overlooked the fact. Number four, somehow by chance he did not have an immigration stamp in his passport when he arrived,” he said.

Every time Lugovoi was in London in October 2006 he met with Litvinenko. Some times with Berezovsky. A ‘business trip’ in this time frame meant meeting with Litvinenko. The fake passport is an interesting first guess on the part of Felshtinsky. It will be interesting to see how this pans out, if it even holds up to scrutiny. Was it a smuggling trip under the cover of all the other public trips? Did this trip have the concurrent Po-210 trail or not? We shall see, possibly.