Russia tried to contain fallout from its diplomatic row with Britain on Friday as Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov headed for talks in Germany likely to touch on the affair.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov acknowledged worries that the row over the poisoning of ex-agent Alexander Litvinenko and Moscow’s refusal to extradite the main suspect, Andrei Lugovoi, could damage relations with the European Union.
”Thank God that the countries in the EU Presidency are not refusing a dialogue,” Peskov told journalists late on Thursday.
”We do not want to believe that the Lugovoi case can somehow worsen the relationship between the EU and Russia and that’s why we’re going to continue to work with our European partners,” he said.
He also said Moscow regarded Logovoi as a suspect in the affair, and Russian prosecutors carrying out their own probe were ”checking various directions … Lugovoi is being checked as one of the suspects.”
On Friday the state-run Rossiyskaya Gazeta warned that Britain was trying to unite Europe around a policy of ”restraining Russia” by its tough response to Moscow’s refusal to extradite Lugovoi.
London earlier took a series of punitive steps, including expelling four Russian diplomats, after Moscow refused to hand over Lugovoi to face murder charges for the radioactive poisoning of Litvinenko last November.
The EU Presidency and the United States have thrown their weight behind London in the crisis.
”Clearly one can see the traditional ‘divide and rule’ tactic of the British empire here, the target of which this time is not only Russia but London’s strategic allies, its partners in the EU,” Rossiyskaya Gazeta said.
The Gazeta newspaper quoted Alexander Rahr, an expert with the German Council on Foreign Policy, as predicting a toughening of the EU’s stance.
”More and more the EU will put pressure on Russia, insofar as it is possible within the framework of democratic values and legal frameworks,” Rahr said.
On Friday Russia’s foreign minister was due to meet his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who has traditionally been relatively sympathetic towards Moscow.
On Thursday Russia announced the expulsion of four British diplomats in response to Britain’s earlier expulsion of four Russian diplomats.
Moscow also announced a ban on visas for visiting British government officials and the suspension of counter-terrorism cooperation.
The Russian Constitution forbids Russia from extraditing its own citizens, but Britain insists that Moscow could hand over Lugovoi under the terms of an international convention it has signed.
Amid the tensions on Friday, British and Norwegian fighter jets scrambled over the North Sea after Russian bombers were spotted flying at ”unusual” latitudes overnight.
The two Russian bombers were detected in international airspace between south-eastern Norway and eastern Scotland, Norwegian army spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jon Inge Oegland said, describing the flight paths of the bombers as ”a little unusual”.
The bombers turned back before two more Russian bombers were observed flying westwards, west of the Barents Sea, again prompting the Norwegian military to dispatch jets, Oegland said.
”Both times the Russian bombers stayed within international airspace … They didn’t do anything wrong,” Oegland stressed. — AFP
