BRITISH detectives were investigating claims by a Russian former double agent of an assassination attempt against him, police told The Mail on Sunday newspaper.

Oleg Gordievsky, 69, a high-profile Cold War defector, claimed he was poisoned by another former Russian intelligence agent just weeks after he was highly decorated by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II for his services to Britain’s security.

The former Soviet colonel claimed he was next on the hit list following the November 2006 radiation poisoning murder of Alexander Litvinenko, which plunged relations between Britain and Russia to a post-Cold War low.

Gordievsky, who was the London bureau chief of the KGB Soviet intelligence agency and defected in 1985, accused the British authorities of wanting to keep the episode covered up.

He claimed he was visited by a Russian man at his safe-house in the county of Surrey, south-west of London.

The ex-spy was taken by ambulance from his home to a hospital in the town of Guildford on Nov. 2, 2007.

“Surrey Police are continuing to investigate allegations made by this man and it would not be appropriate to comment further until our investigation is complete,” a spokeswoman said.

He lay unconscious and “close to death” for 34 hours and spent two weeks recuperating. He was initially left partially paralyzed and still has no feelings in his fingers.

Gordievsky suspected one of his long-term friends, a former Russian military intelligence officer, of poisoning him. The man cannot be named for legal reasons.

The unnamed man, said he had been spoken to by police officers but not formally interviewed. He told The Mail that Gordievsky’s account was “nonsense.” (SD-Agencies)