British police have launched a murder investigation into the death of London-based Russian businessman Nikolai Glushkov, after a postmortem established he died from compression to the neck.
Glushkov was a close associate of Russian oligarch turned Kremlin critic Boris Berezovsky, who died under disputed circumstances in 2013.
Glushkov, 68, was found dead at his London home on March 12, a week after former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were left critically ill from a nerve-toxin poisoning in the southern English city of Salisbury.
The police said in a March 16 statement that at this stage, "there is nothing to suggest any link to the attempted murders in Salisbury, nor any evidence that he (Glushkov) was poisoned."
Counterterrorism police are leading the case "because of the associations Mr. Glushkov is believed to have had," the statement said.