Cannes to screen film on ex-spy

The documentary has been filmed by Russian feature and documentary maker Andrei Nekrasov, a friend of Litvinenko, and Olga Konskaya. The two are expected to arrive in Cannes to attend Saturday8217;s screening along with Litvinenko8217;s widow Marina, in the Palais des Festival8217;s Bunuel Theatre.

Nekrasov filmed Litvinenko from his forced exile from Russia, to his death in a London hospital.

Litvinenko, a fierce critic of President Putin, was granted political asylum in Britain in 2000. He died of polonium-210 poisoning in a London hospital on November 23. The radioactive isotope was allegedly slipped into his tea during a meeting in a hotel.

8220;Making this film was a personal catharsis for me, a way of coping with the shock of losing a friend, who died a terrible death in front of my eyes,8221; Nekrasov told reporters.

The film allegedly implicates Putin in Litvinenko8217;s killing, and in a series of interviews and never-before-seen footage also makes a wider attack on Putin, his rise to power, and corruption in Russia today.

In a related development, a tape made available to The Wall Street Journal and Associated Press suggests Litvinenko knew he was a marked man from the time he first blew the whistle on his bosses almost a decade ago.

The 1988 video features three government security agents, including Litvinenko, who claim their bosses had ordered them to kill, kidnap and frame prominent Russians.

8220;If these people are not stopped, this lawlessness will flood the country,8221; Litvinenko says on the tape, referring to the Federal Security Service or FSB, the KGB8217;s successor.

It would, he said, be worse than in 1937, when Soviet leader Josef Stalin staged a series of purges called the Great Terror.

In the video Litvinenko and his colleagues sit on couches with Russian journalist Sergei Dorenko, speaking solemnly of their repugnance at the violence and immorality they claim had infected the FSB, an agency they were once proud to serve.

More than six months later, Litvinenko repeated many of the same startling accusations at a news conference8212;including that he had been ordered to kill Boris Berezovsky, one of post-Soviet Russia8217;s most notorious tycoons and, at the time, an influential Kremlin insider.

Meanwhile, Russian First Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov at a press conference here today denied that British demand for extradition of Lugovoi over Litvinenko8217;s murder damaged relations with Russia.