London (March 17, 2018): A murder investigation has been launched into the death of Russian businessman Nikolai Glushkov following the results of a postmortem exam, British police said in a statement on Friday.
The Russian exile, who had links to compatriots who died in mysterious circumstances in the UK, was found dead in his London home Monday evening.According to the police statement, the examination “gave the cause of death as compression to the neck.”
The statement also said the Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command “is retaining primacy for the investigation because of the associations Mr. Glushkov is believed to have had.”
Glushkov’s death came just over a week after the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in the English city of Salisbury on March 4.
Police said there is no evidence that the incidents are linked at this stage. There is “nothing to suggest any link to the attempted murders in Salisbury, nor any evidence that he was poisoned,” the statement said.Earlier on Friday, the Russian Investigative Committee also launched criminal proceedings into what it calls the “murder” of Glushkov.
“Investigators are ready to work together with competent authorities in Great Britain,” the committee said in a statement.
Glushkov was found dead at his home in New Malden, southwest London, Monday evening. Police were called by ambulance services at 10.46 p.m. local time to the address in the borough of Kingston.
Forensic crews attended the scene and police removed several bags of evidence, according to neighbor Pat Egan.
Glushkov was a friend and former employee of Boris Berezovsky, a powerful oligarch found dead in his UK home in 2013. Glushkov was never convinced by the police explanation that Berezovsky killed himself.
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