London
Britain expelled four Russian diplomats this week as tension between the two countries rose. British officials are furious that Russia refuses to hand over the Russian businessman accused of murdering Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London last year. “We are not prepared to allow a situation of lawlessness to develop in London as a result of a failure to act,” said Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Russia said its laws forbid extraditing Russians to foreign countries, and it warned that the expulsion of its diplomats would bring a “targeted” response. The accused, Andrei Lugovoi, left a trail of radioactive polonium—the substance that inflicted a gruesome, lingering death on Litvinenko—through Europe on his way back to Moscow.
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