Lugovoi promises a scoop after being officially charged for Litvinenko’s murder

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The evidence collected by British police saying about possible involvement of Andrei Lugovoi in Alexander Litvinenko’s murder is being translated into Russian. As soon as the process is finished, the Russian authorities will be handed over an official request for extradition of the charged to the UK.

The claim of the British authority is based on the fact that in 2001 Russia joined the European Convention on Extradition of 1957. The Russian prosecution announced yesterday that extradition of Russian citizens contradicts the Russian constitution. However, some experts in Moscow admitted that although the Russian government is not obliged to hand over Lugovoi to the UK, but has a right to do so under the convention.

As REGNUM reported earlier, the Crown Prosecution Service (UK) officially charged Andrei Lugovoi with murder of ex-FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko. In response to it, Lugovoi repeatedly announced he was not involved in the case and promised a sensation that would change attitudes of British public opinion towards Russians, who have recently settled in the UK.

Alexander Litvinenko was granted political asylum in the UK in 2000. On November 23, 2006, he died, being 43, after receiving a large dose of radiation from polonium 210. The charges against Lugovoi are based on the traces of radioactivity found in all places in London visited by him, reports The Guardian.