Britain has started diplomatic war: Russian media

Reuters
Tuesday July 17, 2007

Britain has declared diplomatic war on Russia by expelling four envoys from London and failing to respect Moscow's constitutional ban on extradition, Russian newspapers said on Tuesday.

Commentators accused Britain of double standards for punishing Russia over its refusal to hand over the chief suspect in the murder of former agent Alexander Litvinenko in London while ignoring numerous Russian extradition requests.

"Britain and Russia have plunged into a diplomatic war of unprecedented scale," said the business daily Kommersant, one of the more independent voices in Moscow.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband announced the expulsions on Monday, saying Russia had failed to cooperate with London's investigation into the murder of Litvinenko, who died after drinking tea spiked with radioactive polonium-210.

"Over the past six years, Moscow has sent Britain 21 extradition requests, but not a single suspect has been extradited," said the government daily Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

"The suspects included fraudsters, killers, terrorists, drug dealers and persons involved in especially serious embezzlement of funds. Six of the people mentioned in the requests have been granted political asylum in Great Britain."

The remark appeared to be a reference to the cluster of anti-Kremlin emigres based in London, who include multimillionaire businessman Boris Berezovsky and Chechen representative Akhmed Zakayev, both wanted in Russia.

The Russian Foreign Ministry reacted emotionally to the expulsions on Monday, describing Britain's actions as "immoral" and "provocative" and promising to retaliate.

Russian newspapers said Britain clearly wanted to avoid damaging its substantial business interests in Russia, where it is among the biggest foreign investors, mainly in the politically sensitive oil and gas sector.

Nezavisimaya Gazeta quoted Russia's ambassador to Britain Yuri Fedotov as saying British companies invested $3.3 billion in Russia last year.

"It turns out that Russia and Britain have things to lose," the newspaper said.

The pro-government daily Izvestia recalled a 2002 incident in which Russia tried to extradite a citizen to Turkmenistan, one of the world's most repressive countries.

Murad Garbayev was returned to Russia and tried at home after an outburst of protests by international rights groups and a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights.

"It turns out that people cannot be extradited to Ashgabat, but they can be to London," the newspaper said.

Russia has said it will respond to the British action but has not said how or when.