Khodorkovsky & Lebedev Communications Center

In an interview with the UK's Guardian, Walter Litvinenko, the father of poisoned former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko, says that his family is being persecuted once again after their asylum request in Italy has been repeatedly refused, despite providing evidence that they would be at risk in Russia.

For Litvinenko, there is only one plausible reason for this: Silvio Berlusconi's unwillingness to upset the Kremlin or his friend, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The Litvinenko family is unsure how high up their harassment has been authorized from, but a spokesman for Berlusconi insisted that the Italian leader's friendship with Putin had "nothing to do with decisions about the Litvinenko family."