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U.K. to expel four Russian diplomats

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: In a surprisingly aggressive diplomatic move, the British Government on Monday decided to expel four Russian diplomats and threatened to review cooperation with Russia on a range of issues in retaliation against Moscow’ s refusal to extradite the main accused in the Litvinenko murder case.

Alexander Litvinenko, a controversial former KGB agent and a self-proclaimed enemy of the Russian president Vladimir Putin, died in a London hospital last November after mysteriously ingesting a deadly radioactive material, Polonium 210. Litvinenko came to Britain as an asylum-seeker after falling out with the Putin Government and was later given British citizenship.

British prosecutors have charged Andrei Lugovoi, another former KGB man, with Litvinenko’s murder and want him extradited to Britain to stand trial. Moscow has refused saying that under the Russian constitution its citizens cannot be extradited to another country. Besides, Britain has no extradition treaty with Moscow.

The BBC said that under the Council of Europe European Convention on Extradition 1957, the Russians had the right to refuse the extradition of a citizen. Britain however had the right to request that Mr Lugovoi be tried in Russia.

The decision to expel four Russian diplomats, who were not named until the time of going to the press, was announced by Foreign Secretary David Miliband in the Commons. In a strongly-worded statement, he said it was important to send a “clear and proportionate” signal to Russia how seriously Britain regarded the issue.

He also said:

“We shall review the extent of our cooperation with Russia on a range of issues, and as an initial step we have suspended visa facilitation negotiations with Russia and made other changes to visa practice.”

Denying that the decision amounted to a “rush to judgement,” Mr. Miliband said a British citizen had suffered a “horrifying and lingering death.”

“His murder put hundreds of others, residents and visitors, at risk of radiation contamination, and the U.K. Government has a wider duty to ensure the safety of the large Russian community living in the U.K.,” he said.

The British move came amid worsening diplomatic relations with Russia over a host of issues including Britain’s refusal to extradite the Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky, who enjoys a refugee status, to face alleged corruption charges and for threatening to destabilise the Putin Government. Mr. Berezovsky provoked anger in Moscow when he called for using “force” to topple the Putin administration. In an interview to The Guardian, he said: “We need to use force to change this regime. It isn’t possible to change this regime through democratic means. There can be no change without force, pressure.”

Observers said the British decision had a whiff of the “cold war era.” Britain has not expelled any Russian diplomat in recent memory. Recently, however, a few British diplomats were expelled by Russia after they were allegedly found “spying.”

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