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Wednesday, Jul 18, 2007
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Russia to halt anti-terror ties with U.K.

Vladimir Radyuhin

In response to the expulsion of four diplomats from London

MOSCOW: Russia may halt anti-terror cooperation with Britain in response to the expulsion of four Russian diplomats from London, said a Russian foreign service official.

“The line taken by Britain will make difficult, if not impossible, our cooperation in the sphere of security,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko on Tuesday, citing London’s decision to suspend all contacts with Russian security services.

Britain on Monday said it was expelling four Russian diplomats and curtaining cooperation with Russia in a range of areas in retaliation for Moscow’s refusal to extradite a man accused of murdering former Russian security officer Alexander Litvinenko in London last November.

Mr. Grushko said Moscow’s reaction to the British actions would be “pin-point and adequate”, adding that London would be notified of the Russian counter-measures “in the nearest future”.

Russia was being punished for observing its own Constitution, which bans extradition of Russian citizens, he said. “The British sanctions aimed at politicising the Litvinenko case is a straight road to confrontation, not cooperation.”

Earlier, the Foreign Ministry accused London of fanning “Russophobia” warned of “consequences for Russian-British relations as a whole”. It said it was “always ready to cooperate” with British investigators on the Litvinenko case. Moscow has offered to try the main suspect, businessman Andrei Lugovoi, in Russia. However, Britain has turned down the offer and failed to provide Moscow with any evidence against Mr. Lugovoi and the results of Litvinenko’s postmortem.

“One gets the impression that London has failed to gather sufficient evidence on the Litvinenko case and is afraid of letting the trial to be held in Russian court, where its case will fall like a house of cards,” said Chairman of the Upper House Foreign Affairs Committee Mikhail Margelov.

Russian analysts have warned that if the diplomatic crisis between London and Moscow spins out of control, Britain would be by far the biggest loser. British businessmen have sunk more investments in Russia than any other country and have a vital stake in keeping the Russian doors open.

Russian commentators have ridiculed the diplomatic expulsion as an exercise in self-assertion by Britain’s most youthful Foreign Secretary and the new Cabinet of Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

AFP reports:

Mr. Lugovoi again protested his innocence on Monday of the murder of Litvinenko, denouncing the British accusations against him as “brazen lies.”

He renewed his claim that it had been the British secret services which had killed Litvinenko.

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