London – The plot to poison Alexander Litvinenko, a former KGB colonel and outspoken critic of the Kremlin, seemed to have a cast of characters from a John Le Carré novel. It captured the imagination of the international media and raised unsettling questions about the alleged involvement of the Russian government and its ruthlessness in dealing with political enemies.
On Tuesday, the tale took another twist as Britain made a formal request for the extradition of Andrei Lugovoi, another former KGB agent, who had tea in a London hotel with Litvinenko on Nov. 1, the day Litvinenko fell ill, poisoned by radioactive polonium-210. British officials said they had sufficient evidence to charge Lugovoi with “deliberate poisoning” in the “extraordinarily grave crime.”
But Russia’s response was blunt: “In accordance with Russian law, citizens of Russia cannot be turned over to foreign states,” said Marina Gridneva, a spokeswoman for the Russian prosecutor general’s office.
Russia’s relations with Europe appeared to be heading toward a post-Cold War low.
“We are not talking about a liberal democracy here,” said James Nixey, a Russia analyst at Chatham House, a London research institute.
A deepening chill was apparent last week at a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and European Union leaders. The leaders traded barbs over energy policy and human rights. Russia also is angered by the Bush administration’s efforts to place defense installations in Eastern Europe.
“Relations have been bad for quite a while. This adds to it,” Nixey said of the extradition request.
