Russian foreign minister does not see grounds for charging Lugovoy

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Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov has not comprehended yet what made the British investigators rule that Andrei Lugovoy is the key suspect in the case of murder of former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko.

Speaking on the situation around Lugovoy, he noted: “In what is going on, we see a factor of the new British government.”

Lavrov abstained from forecasting how long the strain period in the Russian-UK relations can last.

On May 28, the United Kingdom claimed that Russia must extradite Lugovoy on the charge of murdering Litvinenko. Moscow turned down the claim, as the Russian constitution prohibits extradition of Russian citizens to other countries. In response, on July 16, London announced it would expel four Russian diplomats. On July 19, Russia declared it was expelling four employees of the British embassy in Moscow.