Lugovoi row: Russia expels four
Updated on 19 July 2007
Russia expels four British diplomats in the row over Moscow's refusal to extradite a murder suspect.
Russia has also decided to suspend its cooperation with the UK over fighting terrorism.
Gordon Brown called it "completely unjustified". But the Kremlin insisted it had been forced to make a "proportionate response" after Britain threw out four Russian diplomats earlier this week.
Former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoy is accused of murdering former spy Alexander Litvinenko by spiking his tea with radioactive polonium.
Finally the response: our man in Moscow summoned for the inevitable. It was an almost mirror response to Monday's expulsion of Russian diplomats from London.
Russian foreign ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin announced that: "An official note has been handed out to the British ambassador to declare four British diplomats personae non grata. They have to leave the territory of the Russian Federation within 10 days from now."
'An official note has been handed out to the British ambassador to declare four British diplomats personae non grata.'Russian foreign ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin
"Specifically, we announced that in all visa matters our actions will continue to mirror those of the British. We have demanded of the ambassador clarification of statements by British officials on the hardening of the British visa regime for representatives of Russian state organs."
Add to this a pause in what little cooperation between Moscow and London there was on the war on terror, and you have what a Kremlin official called the minimum possible response.
Anthony Brenton, the UK ambassador to Russia, reponded by saying: "He has given me certain messages to deliver back to the foreign office, which I will now do. I have underlined to him our continuing disappointment to Russia's reaction so far to our request for the extradition of Mr Lugovoi.
'We obviously believe that the decision to expel four embassy staff was completely unjustified.'British Foreign Secretary David Miliband
On Andrei Lugovoi's fate now ride the billions of dollars of investment between Russia and Britain.
The Kremlin told Channel Four News that they had specified which diplomats had to leave and that they hoped this would be the end of it.
Yet Britain was quick to condemn the Russian counter-move. In a statement, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said: "We obviously believe that the decision to expel four embassy staff was completely unjustified."
