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Russia Waiting for British Reaction to BBC
Russian Ambassador to Great Britain Yury Fedotov demanded on Wednesday that British authorities either deny the involvement of Russian authorities in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko or acknowledge that it is a fabrication. The BBC broadcast a program on which source in the M15 counterintelligence service make that claim on July 7 and 8. “If they confirm [the claims], then we will make the logical conclusions and set the priorities in our bilateral relations. In any case, the silence of official London is hard for me to understand,” said Fedotov. It is not known whether Fedotov made an official enquiry.
þOn the same program, it was claimed that the Russian government was behind an assassination attempt against Boris Berezovksy in August of last year. Fedotov called that claim a “farce.” A man “of Russian origin” was arrested in that case on June 21, according to reports, and was deported two days later.
The program was shown while British Prime Minister (and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev) was in Japan at the G8 summit. The British government has not suggested that Russia was involved in the murder of Litvinenko, although the British press has made the suggestion repeatedly. Russia’s refusal to extradite Russian businessman Andrey Lugovoi as a suspect in the case was one of the causes of the diplomatic tensions between the countries that is still observed.
www.kommersant.com
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