Severe poisoning

London will take revenge on Moscow for Litvinenko's death

There are active discussions in London political circles about how far the current crisis in relations between Russia and Great Britain can go. In particular, there is a lot of talk about the upcoming speech in parliament next week by the new head of the Foreign Office, David Milliband, who is expected to formulate a British response to Moscow’s refusal to extradite businessman Andrei Lugovoy . He is accused of involvement in the murder of former Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko, who died in November 2006 as a result of polonium poisoning.

Most observers agree that the government is likely to announce some kind of sanctions against Russia. The British Foreign Office has already hinted that we may be talking about “terminating cooperation with Russia in one or more areas, including education, interaction in the social sphere, trade and joint counter-terrorism measures.” The Financial Times reports that London may limit the issuance of visas to Russian law enforcement officers. According to The Daily Telegraph, the expulsion of several Russian diplomats from the UK is also possible. To this, the first deputy head of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, Leonid Slutsky, said: “If the scenario of expelling Russian diplomats from London is carried out, then Russia, I am sure, will respond symmetrically.”

However, according to political scientists, no matter what sanctions are applied, they are unlikely to harm Russia and, most likely, will be of a symbolic nature. They are intended to show that Britain cannot come to terms with the blow to security that the “Litvinenko case” caused. A British Foreign Office spokesman said: “We have said more than once that we are taking the Litvinenko murder case very seriously. Hundreds of residents and guests of the British capital are under threat. We consider the Russian response unacceptable.” The Times newspaper adds that in Britain, Russia's refusal to extradite Lugovoy is seen as an attempt to further complicate the clarification of the circumstances of Litvinenko's death.

“I think that Moscow somewhat underestimates the degree of concern of the British government in connection with the poisoning of Litvinenko,” Professor Yuri Fedorov, an employee of Chatham House (Royal Institute of International Affairs), told Vremya Novostey. - In London, this murder is viewed not as some kind of criminal or even political crime, but as an action that jeopardized the security of the country. This is the public’s feeling, and the government cannot ignore it.”

However, another expert on international relations, Professor at the University of Kent Robert Sakwa, admits that the British response may be decidedly harsh. “It seems to me that the current British government is capable of seriously deteriorating relations with Russia,” he told Vremya Novostey. - This fits well with the style of behavior of official London, which at one time initiated the bombing of Yugoslavia, and last year turned a blind eye to Israeli aggression against Lebanon. In recent years, the British leadership has become increasingly imbued with anti-Kremlin sentiments caused by the position of a certain part of the intellectual elite, which accuses the Russian authorities of authoritarianism and undemocratic behavior. I also think that the pressure on Moscow in connection with the “Litvinenko case” is fully consistent with the positions of the American administration in relation to Russia.”

As forthe Kremlin's counter-demands for the extradition of Boris Berezovsky , they are not very well understood in the UK. “This request was considered in open court and was rejected as unfounded,” a source in the prime minister’s administration told Vremya Novostei. “We consider the issue closed. By continuing to raise it, Moscow is effectively calling into question the independence and competence of the British court, which, from our point of view, is simply insulting.”

Zurab NALBANDYAN, London