By RIA Novosti
Moscow : A documentary about former Russian secret agent Alexander Litvinenko, poisoned in London at the end of last year, will be premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this weekend, the director of the film Andrei Nekrasov has said.
Nekrasov, who was friends with Litvinenko, said "Rebellion: The Litvinenko Case" would be shown at Cannes Saturday, with Litvinenko's widow, Marina, expected to speak at a preview press conference.
French television channel TV5 said the film was a last-minute addition to the festival's program by Cannes Artistic Director Thierry Fremaux, who compared the movie to a "big bang."
Nekrasov said the film was included in the festival's program a month ago but its screening was officially announced only Wednesday due to a "political pressure."
He added that he did not intend to blame anyone for Litvinenko's death, but only wanted to provide a portrait of the former agent during last four years of his life.
On Tuesday, British investigators completed their inquiry into the murder of Litvinenko, who died in London last November after being poisoned with the radioactive element polonium-210.
British prosecutors charged businessman Andrei Lugovoi, a former FSB bodyguard, with Litvinenko's poisoning, and asked Russian authorities for his extradition – a request flatly rejected by Russia's Prosecutor General's Office, which said the suspect, a Russian national, could only be tried in his home country.Lugovoi denied any involvement in Litvinenko's murder, dismissing the charges as politically motivated.
After Britain's Crown Prosecution Service said it would demand Lugovoi's extradition, Marina Litvinenko issued a statement saying she was looking forward to seeing him extradited and brought to trial in Britain.
But she added in a later interview with British television that Lugovoi could not possibly be the only one responsible for her husband's murder. "We don't know why my husband was killed, and who asked for this murder. I believe it was not only one person."
A member of Russia's ultranationalist LDPR party, Alexei Mitrofanov, has suggested that Lugovoi should go to Britain and try to prove his innocence.
"I would ask Lugovoi personally to go to England without creating further problems," Mitrofanov said. "If he is so sure of his innocence, he will be able to prove it with the help of defence lawyers."
A source close to the investigation in the case 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.
The Russian Prosecutor General's Office said earlier that Nevzlin, who lives in Israel and is on the international wanted list on fraud charges, could have ordered Litvinenko's assassination.