Britain announced on Monday the expulsion of four Russian diplomats to protest against Moscow’s refusal to extradite a suspect over the murder of ex-agent Alexander Litvinenko, the first such step in over a decade.
The decision, announced by Foreign Secretary David Miliband, marks a major escalation in the row triggered by Litvinenko’s radioactive poisoning last November, which has fuelled rising tensions between Russia and the West.
The last time Britain expelled Russian diplomats was in 1996, when four were ordered out, and observers have recently warned the rift could escalate into a full-blown Cold War-style crisis.
”This is a situation the government has not sought,” Miliband told lawmakers, underlining that Russia’s refusal to extradite former KGB spy Andrei Lugovoi was ”extremely disappointing”.
”First, we will expel four diplomats from the Russian embassy in London, secondly we shall review the extent of our cooperation with Russia on a range of issues,” he said.
The decision also came days after the Kremlin announced it had frozen Russia’s participation in a key post-Cold War pact with Nato, the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, which limits troops and arms on the continent.
As an initial step, London suspended visa facilitation negotiations with Russia and made other changes to visa practice, said Miliband.
Russia confirmed to British prosecutors last week its refusal to hand over Lugovoi over the killing of Litvinenko in London.
The authorities in Moscow have proposed putting Lugovoi on trial in Russia, but British prosecutors believe that would not ”meet standards of impartiality and fairness”, according to Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s office.
British prosecutors allege that Lugovoi used a rare radioactive isotope to poison Litvinenko, a former Russian intelligence agent turned Kremlin critic, during a meeting in London in November.
Prosecutors announced their decision to formally seek Lugovoi’s extradition on May 22, but Russia formally refused to hand him over on July 9, according to prosecutors in London.
In Russia, the pro-government daily Izvestia said last week that Britain’s harsh rhetoric was an attempt by new Prime Minister Gordon Brown to appear strong.
”Does Brown really have no enemy scarier than Russia? It’s as though it were Russians blowing up London buses and metro cars, planning terrorist acts at airports,” Izvestia wrote.
The respected Kommersant daily warned that the dispute could spiral into ”a full-scale diplomatic conflict” and quoted a series of commentators on the likely consequences of any retaliatory measures.
”I hope they will not roll back political and economic relations between us. Otherwise we’ll slide into a new cold war,” said Yury Kobaladze, a former intelligence officer in Britain.
Brown’s spokesperson, Michael Ellam, said last week: ”We seek a constructive relationship with Russia — but this was a very serious crime committed against a British citizen on British soil.”
Britain’s expulsion of the four Russian diplomats in May 1996 was a tit-for-tat action after four British diplomats had to leave Moscow for alleged spying-linked activities. — Sapa-AFP