Russian denies being 'third man'

Andrei Lugovoi met Mr Litvinenko in London on 1 November

A Russian whose name has been linked to a London hotel meeting with poisoned Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko has told the BBC he was not present.

Vyacheslav Sokolenko, reported to be the "third man" at the 1 November meeting, said he was staying at the hotel but never met Mr Litvinenko.

His friend, former KGB bodyguard Andrei Lugovoi, did meet the ex-spy and is to be questioned by Russian prosecutors.

According to reports, there were two others present at the meeting.

Mr Sokolenko said in an interview with BBC Moscow that he was not one of them, and that he had travelled to London with Mr Lugovoi and his family purely to see a football match between CSKA Moscow and Arsenal.

I'm not interesting - there's nothing for me to talk about apart from the football Vyacheslav Sokolenko

"Andrei [Lugovoi] and I had been planning it for a long time," he said. "I'm a huge fan of the CSKA football team, I've travelled a lot with them - to Lisbon, Paris.

"It's not very pleasant, you go off to watch football and then you find yourself in a situation like this."

He said that he had undergone medical tests but "they didn't find anything and there couldn't be anything".

He added that no-one from Scotland Yard or the Russian prosecutor's office had asked to see him, but stressed he was fully prepared to talk to them even though he had little to say.

"I'm not interesting - there's nothing for me to talk about apart from the football."

Mr Lugovoi, who adamantly denies poisoning Mr Litvinenko, told the Russian daily Kommersant that he had met the former spy at about 1600 GMT in a bar at the Millennium Mayfair Hotel.

Mr Sokolenko said on that day he went on an excursion with Mr Lugovoi's family.

"I went to Madame Tussaud's, to some other museum with caves, I don't remember which one. We walked round town. At 1600 on 1 November we came back to the hotel. That's it. Then we had dinner, went to the football match."