Not subject to issue

The English prosecutor's office has accused Andrei Lugovoy of the murder of Alexander Litvinenko

The UK Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) yesterday officially named the main accused in the scandalous case of the murder of former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko , who died last November in London from poisoning with the rare radioactive material polonium-210. It turned out to be a former employee of the Russian special services, and now businessman Andrei Lugovoi ( pictured ), with whom Litvinenko met shortly before his death. "I have today concluded that the evidence put to us by the police is sufficient to charge Andrei Lugovoi with the murder of Litvinenko by deliberate poisoning," said CPS chief Sir Ken MacDonald.

In principle, the “selection” of the British prosecutor’s office was not big news - since the beginning of the year, English newspapers, citing unofficial sources in the local police, regularly reported that Lugovoi was one of the main suspects. The main sensation was how the British prosecutor's office, and after it representatives of the country's government, announced the conclusions of the investigation. They immediately and categorically announced that they would demand from the Russian authorities the extradition of Mr. Lugovoy and regard this as a completely legitimate and legal step.

“I have instructed Crown Prosecutors to take the necessary steps immediately to extradite the suspect Lugovoi from Russia to the UK as quickly as possible to face charges of murder and to stand trial and answer for this crime,” Sir Macdonald said. British civil authorities also contributed. “Russia must fulfill our legal demand,” said the press secretary of British Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday. - Russia and Great Britain have important political and economic ties. But this in any case does not eliminate jurisprudence from international law, which must be respected, and we will not shy away from trying to achieve this.”

Thus, the “Litvinenko case” was automatically transferred to the political plane, since the British authorities made it clear that the Russian side’s refusal to extradite Mr. Lugovoy would be regarded as a violation of international law. Which, in turn, can only worsen relations between Russia and England.

Moreover, apparently, the British authorities did this quite deliberately, since they could not help but understand that their demands were illegal. In justifying the legality of their demands, representatives of the prosecutor's office referred to international law, including the 1957 European Convention on Extradition. However, almost all countries in the world (including Great Britain itself), according to the same international law and the same Convention, cannot extradite their citizens to other countries. This practice is only possible if individual states sign a separate additional protocol to the Convention, specifically stipulating this. However, there are only a few such countries in the world, and Russia is not one of them. Moreover, in the Constitution of the Russian Federation, Article 61 specifically stipulates that “A citizen of the Russian Federation cannot be extradited to another state.” Accordingly, even if the Russian authorities themselves wanted to extradite Mr. Lugovoy to the English prosecutor's office and court, they could not do this - because then it would be a violation of international law and their own Constitution.

Representatives of the Prosecutor General's Office and Russian politicians yesterday commented on the speech of the head of the KPS in precisely this regard. At the same time, they noted that, in principle, the situation is far from “stalemate.” According to the same international law, there is another way to resolve such situations - the authorities of one country, who have brought charges against a citizen of another, can send their incriminating materials to his homeland. And, as in the case of Lugovoi, a citizen of his own country can appear before a national court based on materials from a foreign prosecutor’s office (if they do not contradict our legislation). By the way, this is not that uncommon. But since the British prosecutor's office did not mention this method of resolving the case at all, it is obvious that we are talking about a deliberate aggravation of relations. And against this background, the “Litvinenko case” itself does not seem to have much significance. Obviously, it was simply used for an “adequate” response to the Russian authorities, who have long been unsuccessfully trying to get Britain to extradite a number of famous Russians - Boris Berezovsky (who, by the way, was closely acquainted with Litvinenko), Akhmed Zakayev , a number of YUKOS managers and etc.

Former FSB lieutenant colonel Alexander Litvinenko, who fled to England in 2000 and became famous for his revelations of Russian intelligence services, died of a mysterious illness in a London clinic on November 23, 2006. Experts determined that he was poisoned with the rare toxic and radioactive substance polonium-210. The police opened a murder case and, having identified all of Litvinenko's movements in the last days of his life, found out that the poison was mixed into Mr. Litvinenko's tea in a London cafe, where he met on business with two former colleagues from work in the Russian special services involved in now business in Russia - Andrey Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun. They themselves rejected all suspicions against them. And the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, which also opened a criminal case in connection with the death of Litvinenko, made it clear that, according to its data, Boris Berezovsky should come under suspicion.

Victor PAUKOV