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Russia warns of 'serious' consequences after expulsions from Britain
Reuters/Thomas Peter
Russia's Foreign Ministry chief spokesman Mikhail Kamynin speaks during a news briefing in Moscow July 16, 2007.By Dario Thuburn
AFP
MOSCOW
Petroleumworld.com 07 17 07Russia's foreign ministry warned on Monday that the expulsion of four Russian diplomats from Britain would have "the most serious consequences" on relations between the two countries.
The sanction measures announced by Britain "cannot but lead to the most serious consequences in British-Russian relations as a whole," the ministry's spokesman, Mikhail Kamynin, said in broadcast comments.
Britain announced Monday the expulsion of the diplomats and other sanction measures to protest Moscow's refusal to extradite the suspect in the murder of former Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko in London.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband spoke on the issue by telephone earlier Monday, Kamynin said, without specifying whether this was before or after the announcement from London.
Russia says its constitution prevents it from extraditing its own citizens to face trial in another country, while Britain says this is possible under international accords signed by Russia.
"British authorities have recently been refusing to extradite citizens from other countries who are on English territory and are accused of crimes. In this context, we believe London's position is immoral," Kamynin said.
Kamynin referred to leading Chechen separatist Akhmed Zakayev and fugitive Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky, both of whom have been granted asylum in Britain and are wanted by Russian authorities.
Reacting to the news from London, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev said Moscow's reaction would be "decisive and appropriate," while a member of the Russian parliament warned Britain's economy would suffer.
"From the economic point of view, the British side will suffer great harm," said Andrei Kokoshin, a deputy from the ruling United Russia party, quoted by the ITAR-TASS news agency.
"The decision by British authorities to expel Russian diplomats is a mistake.... It will receive a response from Russia and Britain will suffer more than Russia," Kokoshin said.
Other Russian members of parliament were quoted as saying that the response from Moscow should be "appropriate," hinting that Russia should expel British diplomats from the Russian capital.
The last time Britain expelled Russian diplomats was in 1996, when four were ordered out, and observers have recently warned the rift could escalate into a full-blown Cold War-style crisis.
"Now it's a state-to-state issue. Russia will of course expel. It will do tit-for-tat and the situation is going to (get) worse," said Pavel Felgenhauer, a Moscow-based political analyst.
"There will be no war. This is not a casus belli but it can continue for a long time to damage relations.... This is part of a deterioration of what we can call a new Cold War."
The suspect in the Litvinenko murder, Andrei Lugovoi, said that London's reaction showed that the Litvinenko inquiry "had a political subtext from the start," the Interfax news agency reported.
"I regret that... the actions of British authorities will affect the personal fates and interests of Russian citizens who have nothing to do with the Litvinenko case," Lugovoi said.
dt/boc
AFP 16 1703 GMT 07 07
Copyright© 2007 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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