Expulsions expose deeper rift in British-Russian relations

"It would be tempting to dismiss Britain's decision to expel four Russian diplomats over Moscow's refusal to extradite the main suspect in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko as another diplomatic spat, reminiscent of cold-war tit-for-tat expulsions," writes the daily in an editorial. But, "to imagine that an organisation as powerful in Russia today as the FSB [Russia's Federal Security Service] would let a panel of judges convict a former employee such as [the main suspect Andrei] Lugovoi for the murder of an exile whom most in Russia consider a traitor is just pie in the sky. ... If Russia is seeking to integrate itself ... it has also got to live by the rules that most other European states subject themselves to. Extradition should not be seen as a political instrument. It is reasonable to expect amendments to the Russian constitution that would allow extradition to take place from Russia."

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