LONDON, July 16 (RIA Novosti) - Britain's foreign secretary said four Russian diplomats will be expelled from the country over Moscow's refusal to extradite a Russian citizen accused of murdering former Russian security officer Alexander Litvinenko in London.
Speaking in parliament, David Miliband also said Britain would introduce visa restrictions for Russians over suspect Andrei Lugovoi, who has dismissed British charges against him as political.
Russian authorities said the response to British measures would be "appropriate", a source in Moscow said Monday.
Early last week, British prosecutors said they had received Russia's official refusal to extradite Lugovoi, which cited the Russian Constitution as saying Russian citizens could not be handed over to other countries, and proposed trying Lugovoi in Russia if Britain provides sufficient evidence.
But a spokesman for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the country's authorities could not be sure a Russian trial would be unbiased or sufficiently just.
Litvinenko died in a London hospital in November. British experts said they discovered radioactive isotope polonium-210 in his body, but published no official autopsy results. Lugovoi, also a former Russian security officer, met Litvinenko in London on the day he fell ill. In his deathbed note, Litvinenko, who received British citizenship months before his death, blamed President Vladimir Putin for his murder, an allegation that the Kremlin dismissed.
