Vladimir Putin today accused Britain of insulting the Russian people with "colonial thinking" by demanding the extradition of the main suspect in the killing of the former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko. In an escalation of the war of words with Britain, the Russian president angrily dismissed attempts to force Moscow to hand over Andrei Lugovoi so he can stand trial in the UK. In televised remarks during a meeting of pro-Kremlin youth organisations, Mr Putin said: "They are making proposals to change our constitution which are insulting for our nation and our people. "It's their brains, not our constitution, which need to be changed. What they are offering to us is a clear remnant of colonial thinking." Mr Putin's belligerent comments to a domestic audience are in contrast to his statement to an international press conference last week when he played down the dispute between the two countries, describing it as a "mini-crisis". Yesterday Gordon Brown renewed his demand for Russia to extradite Mr Lugovoi, describing the situation as "intolerable". The Prime Minister insisted Russia had a "responsibility" to hand the suspect over. Mr Litvinenko, who on his deathbed accused Mr Putin of ordering his assassination, died in agony 23 days after he was poisoned by a dose of polonium-210 that was 200 times the lethal level. The murder in London last November has sparked the most severe diplomatic row between the two powers in decades. Last week the British Government expelled four Russian diplomats, prompting Mr Putin to retaliate by ejecting the same number from the UK embassy in Moscow. Speaking during his first monthly press conference as Prime Minister yesterday, Mr Brown said it was "very important" that the world understood the seriousness of the situation. He said: "You cannot have people assassinated on British soil, and then discover that we wish to arrest someone who is in another country, and not be in a position to do that. "We cannot tolerate a situation where all the evidence is that not only was one person assassinated, but many other were put at risk. "We want the Russian authorities to recognise, even at this stage, that it is their responsibility to extradite for trial the Russian citizen who has been identified by our prosecuting authorities." Russia last week also imposed a visa ban on British officials and said that it would cease to co-operate with London in the war on terrorism. But although Moscow’s response was robust, it came at the lower end of the spectrum of possible retaliation. There had been fears the Kremlin would eject a greater number of British diplomats - a move that could have forced Britain into taking additional steps. Mr Lugovoi denies any involvement in the murder, claiming that he has been set up by British secret services.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/07/24/wputin124.xml
JPTF 2007/07/24
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