Nikolai Glushkov: Scotland Yard searching for black van

Video caption, The van was seen the night before Mr Glushkov's body was found.

Detectives investigating the murder of Russian businessman Nikolai Glushkov are trying to trace a black van seen near his London home.

Mr Glushkov, 68, was found dead at his New Malden home on 12 March. A post-mortem examination showed he died of compression to the neck.

Scotland Yard has released CCTV of a van seen in and around Clarence Avenue the night before his body was found.

The public has been asked to help identify the Volkswagen and its driver.

The Met's Counter Terrorism Command is dealing with the investigation "because of the associations Mr Glushkov is believed to have had".

Image source, Facebook

Image caption, Nikolai Glushkov was found dead at his home in March

The former deputy director of Russian state airline Aeroflot was a friend of outspoken President Putin critic Boris Berezovsky, the Russian oligarch who was found hanged in the bathroom of his Berkshire home in 2013. The inquest recorded an open verdict and Mr Glushkov said his friend had not taken his own life.

In 1999, Mr Glushkov was jailed for five years after being charged with money laundering and fraud.

After being given a suspended sentence for another count of fraud in 2006, he was granted political asylum in the UK in 2010 and became a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Police have said they have not found a link between his death and the Skripal poisonings in Salisbury.

Scotland Yard said it had been "pursuing several lines of enquiry in order to identify the vehicle and its driver" since the inquiry into Mr Glushkov's death was launched.

So far, police have obtained 286 witness statements in relation to the murder and 159 witness questionnaires have been completed, while a total of 1,086 exhibits had been seized.

No arrests have been made.