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A Russian businessman who claimed he was 'marked for death' by Vladimir Putin in London has fled the UK - claiming the real threat to his life comes from British secret services.

Sergey Kapchuk, 45, filmed last week flanked by two bodyguards, says he is now in hiding in fear of his life somewhere in Europe.

He earlier claimed that he had moved from number 12 to 11 on the alleged hit list after the death of fellow London-based oligarch Nikolai Glushkov this month.

Kapchuk announced last week he had cancelled plans to be among a group of exiled Russians planning to return to Moscow after getting assurances from Putin’s government that they would not be prosecuted.

(Image: Znak.com / east2west news)

Now in a dramatic interview with a pro-Kremlin newspaper he said: “Honestly today I would feel safer in Russia.”

Explaining his U-turn, he said: “I understood that I ams not of interest either for the FSB, nor for Russian (foreign) intelligence.

“And the British secret service might organise some sort of provocation, in my opinion.

“So I did not wait for it.

“I simply packed my things and immediately left the country.

“I am in continental Europe now.”

He made clear he now believed his life was in danger because of the British secret service - and his bank accounts and credit cards had been suddenly blocked.

(Image: TASS)

“Some game is going on. I did not read the rules, I do not know the producer. And I do not wish to be a piece in this chess game,” he said.

He claimed the British media had lied in calling him a Putin enemy, and hyped up the line about the hit list.

He picked out Sky News and Good Morning Britain for allegedly treating him unfairly after the poisoning of double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, and the death of Glushkov.

“On 15 March a crew from SkyTV came to interview me,” he said.

“They said – ‘We have information that you are the next victim of Russia’.

“A lovely young girl called me to arrange an interview, but a true ‘intelligence officer’ looking man came to see me.

“It was not an interview, more likely an interrogation.”

He was asked and refused to record a video appeal to Putin, said Kapchuk, a businessman who had previously had a political career in Russia.

(Image: TV Rain / east2west news)

“I said that I was not been in politics for 15 years, that Russia was my motherland and I did not have anything against it,” he said.

“He was almost torturing me trying to fish it out but I refused to comment.

“He was angry and upset, and finally left.

“The interview went out but only my bodyguards were included and my words that I am trying to defend myself from a possible attack.”

He claimed Good Morning Britain did not broadcast an interview after he said “only British government along with Theresa May can benefit” from the Skripal case, a line echoing Moscow’s view.

After fleeing to the continent “all my credit cards stopped working,” he claimed.

“I called the bank, they said everything was fine.

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“Then they called back, their voice changed, and they said I had to go back to London and to sort this problem out in person.

“My representatives visited the bank today but they insisted that they would not speak to any trustees.

“Basically, they had blocked all my accounts and are forcing me to come back.”

He would not return in the near furture.

"I am not sure about my safety in London,” he told pro-Kremlin Komsomolskaya Pravda.

“My life is more precious for me than any money.

"When Glushkov was killed, journalists wrote to me and called.

“They were flagging that I was the next one.

“And when you hear something like this, if you are not an idiot, you should react . So I hired bodyguards.”

Asked if he had been afraid at that point of Putin’s secret services or the British, he replied: “When I ordered bodyguards I just did not know what was going on around me.

“But gradually, analysing everything, I understood that I was not interesting for the Russian secret service.

“They did not have any reason to deal with me, but another secret service may be interested.

“I won’t name them.

“Their aim is to darken Putin and to demonise his image, and this process is actively going on in the Western media now.”

He admitted that he had recontacted Boris Titov who is acting as a middleman from the Kremlin in encouraging London exiles to return to Moscow with their money.

“I got in touch with Titov today,” he said.

“He said my paperwork is being processed.”

“I would like to have my Motherland on my side in this situation. You know, when we are in trouble, we usually get back to our parents – same story. I am a citizen of Russia, I have never said anything baseless about my country and I won’t do it.”

Yet only last week he was quoted on a Russian independent TV channel saying he had “changed my mind” about returning to Moscow, and forecast a “financial winter” under Putin’s policies.

He said at the time, explaining his decision to hire bodyguards: “The Brits are stupidly asking me – are you afraid?

“I say – what about you, would you be afraid if you are number 12 on a list (of enemies of Russia)?”