British authorities’ provocative actions will have the most serious consequences for Russian-UK relations

Saturday, January 23, 2021

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British authorities’ provocative actions will have the most serious consequences for Russian-UK relations, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. In his telephone conversation with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Monday, Lavrov said, “London should well understand that the actions masterminded by the British authorities will not be left without response and may entail the most serious consequences for Russian-British relations.” “We get the impression that such actions taken by Britain’s authorities are aimed at justifying their refusal to jointly work with Russian law enforcement agencies over the extradition of Ahmed Zakayev and Boris Berezovsky. We presented conclusive evidence of their involvement in the terrorist activity. I’d like to recall that in recent years British authorities have consistently refused to extradite citizens accused of crime,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said. “In this context Britain’s position is immoral,” he said. Britain’s new government said it would expel four diplomats from the Russian Embassy in London and suspend visa negotiations in retaliation for Moscow's refusal to extradite a suspect in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said: “This is a situation the government has not sought and does not welcome. But we have no choice but to address it.” Litvinenko, a former employee of Russia's Federal Security Service, fled to Britain and became a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin. He died an agonising death in London after ingesting a lethal dose of the radioactive isotope polonium 210. Moscow has since refused to extradite Andrei Lugovoy, a former state security agent. British prosecutors want to bring him before a British court and charge him with the murder of Litvinenko.

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