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It's nice to see the British police haven't dropped this case due to Russian government opposition. Finally, there is a man being charged for murdering the FSB/KGB defector in London last year.
LONDON - British prosecutors on Tuesday requested the extradition of former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi to face a charge of murder in the poisoning death of former operative Alexander Litvinenko, officials said.
Lugovoi met Litvinenko at a London hotel only hours before Litvinenko became ill with polonium-210 poisoning. He has repeatedly denied any involvement in the case during interviews with the police and media.
The Interfax news agency on Tuesday cited the Russian prosecutor-general’s office as saying it will not turn over Lugovoi to British authorities.
‘Murder is murder’
The politically charged case has driven relations between London and Moscow to post-Cold War lows. Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett summoned the Russian ambassador and Prime Minister Tony Blair’s spokesman said the government expected full cooperation.
“Murder is murder, this is a very serious case,” Blair’s spokesman said while speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in line with government policy. “The manner of the murder was also very serious because of the risks to public health.”
Blair’s spokesman said Russia and Britain had a formal extradition agreement but he declined to comment on previous claims from Moscow that it would not surrender its citizens to British authorities.
The Kremlin declined to comment.
Litvinenko, 43, died Nov. 23 after ingesting the rare radioactive isotope. On his deathbed, he accused President Vladimir Putin of being behind his killing. The Russian government denies involvement.
The former agent had become a vocal Kremlin critic who accused Russian authorities of being behind deadly 1999 apartment building bombings that stoked support for a renewed offensive against separatists in Chechnya. Litvinenko was also a close associate of slain investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
“I would like to thank the police and the (prosecutors) for all their hard work in investigating the murder of my husband,” Litvinenko’s widow Marina said. “It is thanks to them that we have reached the point today of having a named person to be charged with this crime.”
UK-Russia relations plummet
The charges signal a new low in relations between London and Moscow. In a speech to Russian ambassadors last year, Putin laid out his foreign policy goals and urged them to strengthen relations with the “leading” EU countries of Italy, France, Germany and Spain. Notably, Britain was snubbed.
In January 2006, Russia’s Federal Security Service, the FSB, accused four British diplomats of spying, after a state-run television report said British diplomats had contacted Russian agents using communications equipment hidden in a fake rock in a Moscow park.
The FSB said one of the diplomats had provided money for non-governmental organizations and used the episode to justify a crackdown on NGOs.
Anti-Kremlin exile
The Kremlin is also angry that Britain has given refuge to Boris Berezovsky, once an influential Kremlin insider under former President Boris Yeltsin, but who fell out with Putin and fled to Britain in 2000 to avoid a money-laundering investigation he says was politically motivated.
Russian investigators questioned Berezovsky in a parallel investigation into the murder earlier this year.
Berezovsky said that the charges against Lugovoi point directly to the Kremlin because such an audacious and complicated killing would not be possible without state support.
“I am a 100 percent sure that the British government understands the importance of this case,” Berezovsky said.
Lugovoi met Litvinenko at a London hotel only hours before Litvinenko became ill with polonium-210 poisoning. He has repeatedly denied any involvement in the case during interviews with the police and media.
The Interfax news agency on Tuesday cited the Russian prosecutor-general’s office as saying it will not turn over Lugovoi to British authorities.
‘Murder is murder’
The politically charged case has driven relations between London and Moscow to post-Cold War lows. Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett summoned the Russian ambassador and Prime Minister Tony Blair’s spokesman said the government expected full cooperation.
“Murder is murder, this is a very serious case,” Blair’s spokesman said while speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in line with government policy. “The manner of the murder was also very serious because of the risks to public health.”
Blair’s spokesman said Russia and Britain had a formal extradition agreement but he declined to comment on previous claims from Moscow that it would not surrender its citizens to British authorities.
The Kremlin declined to comment.
Litvinenko, 43, died Nov. 23 after ingesting the rare radioactive isotope. On his deathbed, he accused President Vladimir Putin of being behind his killing. The Russian government denies involvement.
The former agent had become a vocal Kremlin critic who accused Russian authorities of being behind deadly 1999 apartment building bombings that stoked support for a renewed offensive against separatists in Chechnya. Litvinenko was also a close associate of slain investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
“I would like to thank the police and the (prosecutors) for all their hard work in investigating the murder of my husband,” Litvinenko’s widow Marina said. “It is thanks to them that we have reached the point today of having a named person to be charged with this crime.”
UK-Russia relations plummet
The charges signal a new low in relations between London and Moscow. In a speech to Russian ambassadors last year, Putin laid out his foreign policy goals and urged them to strengthen relations with the “leading” EU countries of Italy, France, Germany and Spain. Notably, Britain was snubbed.
In January 2006, Russia’s Federal Security Service, the FSB, accused four British diplomats of spying, after a state-run television report said British diplomats had contacted Russian agents using communications equipment hidden in a fake rock in a Moscow park.
The FSB said one of the diplomats had provided money for non-governmental organizations and used the episode to justify a crackdown on NGOs.
Anti-Kremlin exile
The Kremlin is also angry that Britain has given refuge to Boris Berezovsky, once an influential Kremlin insider under former President Boris Yeltsin, but who fell out with Putin and fled to Britain in 2000 to avoid a money-laundering investigation he says was politically motivated.
Russian investigators questioned Berezovsky in a parallel investigation into the murder earlier this year.
Berezovsky said that the charges against Lugovoi point directly to the Kremlin because such an audacious and complicated killing would not be possible without state support.
“I am a 100 percent sure that the British government understands the importance of this case,” Berezovsky said.
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