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UK Prime Minister told by Russia to shut up about Litvinenko radiation murder

Kremlin tells Cameron to forget radiation killing of dissident ahead of Moscow state visit, Daily Mail, By JAMES CHAPMAN, 12th September 2011 David Cameron was told to forget Britain’s ‘obsession’ with the radiation killing of a dissident Russian in London last night as he arrived for the first visit by a British prime minister to Moscow in six years.

Mr Cameron wants to focus on Anglo-Russian trade ties, but is under pressure to use the trip to press the Kremlin over the killing of Alexander Litvinenko and broader abuses human rights and state-sponsored corruption.

Four former British foreign secretaries — David Miliband, Jack Straw, Margaret Beckett and Sir Malcolm Rifkind — took the unusual step yesterday of issuing a joint statement urging Mr Cameron to stand up to the Russian regime.

Mr Litvinenko was poisoned with radioactive polonium-210 in London five years ago in what is alleged to have been a state-sponsored assassination.  He died a lingering death. Ever since, Russia has spurned Britain’s demands to extradite Andrei Lugovoy, the former KGB officer who is the chief suspect in the murder.

Mr Lugovoy, now a member of Russia’s parliament, has claimed he was not involved. Mr Cameron will raise the case during extensive talks in Moscow but officials are making clear that the aim is to try to ‘reset’ relations.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking yesterday ahead of Mr Cameron’s arrival, signalled that Russia expects the Prime Minister to abandon the demands for Lugovoy’s extradition. ‘We cannot afford to be guided by politicised and stereotyped approaches inherited from a different era,’ he said. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2036288/Kremlin-tells-Cameron-forget-radiation-killing-Alexander-Litvinenko-ahead-Moscow-state-visit.html

September 12, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Russia, secrets,lies and civil liberties