Litvinenko affair set to hurt UK-Russia relations

Britain yesterday renewed its call to Russia to hand over the man its suspects of murdering Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko as both sides dug in for what could turn into a bruising diplomatic fight.

British prosecutors said on Tuesday they wanted to bring Andrei Lugovoy before a British court and charge him with poisoning Litvinenko in London last November. But Russia's Constitution forbids it from extraditing its own citizens.

The naming of Mr Lugovoy as the murder suspect set Britain and Russia, former Cold War foes, on a diplomatic collision course. Analysts said it could cause a further deterioration in frosty relations and deepen Russia's isolation from the West.

Britain piled on the pressure on Moscow for an extradition, with a spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair saying: "Russia should abide by its international obligations."

"We believe... it is through abiding by international obligations that people have the confidence in terms of whether it's investment, or just normal relations. I'm sure Russia is as aware of that as we are."

Russia signalled it would not be bounced into action by Britain.

Its prosecutors are mounting their own, parallel investigation into Litvinenko's murder and have suggested that Kremlin opponents living abroad may have been behind the crime.

"The conclusions of (British and Russian) investigators will not necessarily coincide," Interfax news agency quoted a source close to the Russian investigation as saying.

Boris Berezovsky, a London-based Russian multi-millionaire and Putin opponent who was a pall bearer at Litvinenko's funeral, said he did not expect Russia to cooperate.

"(Russian President Vladimir) Putin's government will never allow the extradition of Lugovoy," Mr Berezovsky told BBC radio.

Mr Lugovoy, a former KGB state security agent who now runs a private business in Russia, sounded untroubled in a brief telephone interview with Reuters.

"Of course I consider myself not guilty. I am not saying anything else. Of course I am not guilty," he said.

Russian prosecutors could prosecute Mr Lugovoy themselves using evidence supplied by British colleagues. But former Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Skuratov said that was unlikely.

"Naturally, on this sort of case no one is going to do that," the Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily quoted Dr Skuratov as saying.

Litvinenko died an agonising death in a London hospital last year after ingesting a fatal dose of polonium 210, a radioactive isotope. Mr Lugovoy had a meeting with Litvinenko in a London hotel soon before he fell ill.

In a letter read out by friends after his death, Litvinenko accused Mr Putin of being responsible.

The Kremlin denied the accusation but it renewed anger that Britain had given refugee status to Mr Berezovsky, who is wanted on corruption charges and who, the Kremlin says, is using London as a base to undermine Mr Putin.

A sharp deterioration in relations might have an impact on economic ties. London is the financial centre of choice for Russian companies listing on international bourses and BP has a huge investment in Russia through its vehicle TNK-BP.

"While Russia's relations with the UK had already cooled in recent years... the latest round of the 'Litvinenko affair' is bound to make matters even worse," said Yaroslav Lissovolik, an analyst at Deutsche UFG bank.