Former FSB agent and today's businessman Andrey Lugovoy
Photo: Alexey Kudenko
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London Still Hopes the Problems Could be Overcome
Britain still hopes that Russia will hand over businessman Andrey Lugovoy, whom Britain has charged with murdering former FSB agent Alexander Litvinenko, RIA Novosti reported with reference to a source with the Foreign Office.
It appears Britain hasn’t dropped the efforts to commit its courts to deliver an award for the Litvinenko case. “We continue to look for a willingness from the Russian authorities to work constructively with us to bring this crime, committeed in the UK, to justice in a British court,” Reuters quoted a source with the Foreign Office as saying.
On May 25, the UK made a formal request for Lugovy’s extradition from Russia and faced official refusal. Prosecutors said the country’s constitution forbids extradition of Russian citizen.
In one of the following efforts, the UK urged Russia to amend the constitution in view of the Litvinenko case.
“They should better change their brains than our constitution,” President Vladimir Putin rebuffed yesterday when meeting with youth organizations in Zavidovo. The remarks of Britain betrayed outdated colonial thinking, Putin pointed out, specifying that the UK has extradited none of 30 people that are wanted in Russia for committing grave and very grave crimes.
Former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko fled to Britain in 2000. He died in a London hospital November 2006 and the trace of radioactive polonium-210 was found in his body.
www.kommersant.com
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