Russia, Britain fail to heal Litvinenko rift
Agence France-Presse | 11/03/2009 7:34 AM
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MOSCOW – Britain and Russia on Monday failed to resolve a bitter dispute over the murder of a Kremlin critic in London that badly chilled relations, on the first visit by a British foreign secretary for five years.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that London's calls for the extradition of Russian lawmaker Andrei Lugovoi, the main suspect in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006, were "absolutely unrealistic."
His visiting British counterpart David Miliband however gave no indication that London was prepared to drop its demands, saying that "we continue to seek justice for him (Litvinenko)."
Despite the differences, the two sides sought to show a united front on the Iranian nuclear crisis, with Miliband saying both Moscow and London wanted a "prompt response" from Tehran to a United Nations-drafted nuclear fuel deal.
"We don't paper over our differences," Miliband added. "But we don't allow them to block cooperation where possible."
British police accuse Lugovoi of murdering Litvinenko, a former Russian spy turned exiled Kremlin critic, by lacing his tea with radioactive polonium in a London hotel in November 2006.
Miliband's visit to Moscow coincided with the third anniversary of the fatal poisoning, a crime that led to the worst degradation in Russian-British ties since the Cold War.
Lavrov repeated Russia's insistence that Britain has not presented sufficient evidence to extradite Lugovoi, who was elected to the Russian parliament for a nationalist party in 2007.
"Our position has not changed. I believe our British colleagues understand that demands that we essentially change our constitution are absolutely unrealistic," Lavrov said.
Britain has so far failed to send a "full volume" of evidence on the case, he added.
Miliband indicated the two countries would have to agree to differ on the case and concentrate on areas where they could find common ground.
"It's an important part of our modern relationship with Russia that we can be completely open about the importance we attach to these issues."
Miliband told the Russian edition of Newsweek in an interview that even though Lugovoi was a member of parliament he was still a "wanted man" over a "chilling murder."
Lugovoi, who has always maintained his innocence, said the British judicial authorities "feared that true reasons for this crime may be exposed if the court hearing is held in Russia," the Interfax news agency reported.
The foreign secretary also held a meeting with Russian activists, including the prize-winning rights group Memorial.
He was also expected to meet Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on a visit to the offices of the opposition Novaya Gazeta newspaper, which Gorbachev part owns, diplomats said.
Before leaving early Tuesday, he was also to meet his elderly Russian relative Sofia Miliband, whose existence he only discovered when she called into a Russian radio show in which his brother Ed, also a British cabinet minister, was appearing.
While top officials from Latin America, Asia and other European Union states have made regular stops in Moscow in recent years, the last serving British foreign secretary to visit for bilateral talks was Jack Straw in July 2004.
Adding to the tensions, Russia is angry over Britain's refusal to hand over Russian citizens convicted by its courts who have taken refuge in London, such as businessman Boris Berezovsky.
Moscow has so far failed to resoundingly back the Western threats of sanctions against Iran should diplomacy fail, prompting concern in the West.
But Lavrov made every effort to show there were no differences between the two permanent UN Security Council members on the issue, saying Britain and Russia were "united" on the main questions in the Iran stand-off.
Miliband said both countries "want to see a prompt response from the Iranian regime" on the nuclear fuel deal, seen as a possible solution to the crisis, amid Western fears that Tehran was taking too long over its response.
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