WORLD / Europe
Russian-British relations to develop normally, says Putin
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-07-20 03:23
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia and Britain
will overcome the current crisis in bilateral relations, which was
chilled by recent expelling of each other's diplomats.
"I think Russian-British relations will develop normally. I am convinced
that we will cope with this mini-crisis too," RIA news agency quoted
Putin as saying in the Russian Republic of Mordovia.
Both Russia and Britain were interested in developing bilateral
relations, "but any actions should be matched with common sense. The
legal rights and interests of partners should be respected, and then
everything will take the best course," Putin was quoted as saying.
Britain decided on Monday to expel four diplomats from the Russian
embassy in London due to Russia's refusal to extradite main suspect
Andrei Lugovoi in the poisoning case of former agent Alexander Litvinenko.
Russia, in response, said on Thursday it will expel four British
diplomats and stop conter-terrorism cooperation with Britain, as well as
cease issuing visas for British officials.
Litvinenko died of radioactive poisoning, from Polonium 210, in London on
November 23 last year. Experts investigating his death found radiation
traces at a dozen locations and on two British Airways airplanes that
flew the Moscow-London route.
Lugovoi, a business partner of Litvinenko and also a former KGB agent,
met him at a London hotel on November 1. Litvinenko fell ill on that day
and died weeks later in a London hospital.
On July 5, Russia's Prosecutor General's Office formally rejected
Britain's request for the extradition of Lugovoi.
Russia has said its rejection was based both on a constitutional ban on
turning Russian citizens over to foreign countries, and on a European
convention that allows signatories to refuse to extradite their nationals.
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