Speaking at his monthly press conference at 10 Downing Street, Gordon Brown said the U.K. would like to cooperate with Russia in all vital areas, including business, social and security issues.
However, he said London would not tolerate the fact that an innocent British citizen, Litvinenko, had been killed in the country, and would demand that the Russian authorities extradite businessman Lugovoi for a fair trial in the U.K.
Litvinenko was the co-author of a book that claimed that one-time colleagues in Russia's Federal Security Service were responsible for deadly apartment bombings in Russia in 1999. The ex-KGB man arrived in Britain in 2000 and was later granted political asylum.
Britain's Scotland Yard has stated that his former colleague and business partner Andrei Lugovoi poisoned Litvinenko by adding a dose of polonium-210 to his tea during a meeting in London in 2006. Lugovoi has strenuously denied any involvement in frequent interviews.
The murder of the Kremlin critic Litvinenko subsequently led to the worst diplomatic crisis between Britain and Russia since the end of the Cold War, with the two countries engaging in tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions in July.
Moscow has refused to extradite Lugovoi to Britain, citing Russia's Constitution, which bars citizens from being extradited for trial abroad, offering instead to try Lugovoi in Russia if sufficient evidence is provided.
In September, Lugovoi confirmed that he would run for parliament as a candidate for the Liberal Democratic Party, led by outspoken pro-Kremlin ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky. Under Russian law, a seat in the State Duma would give Lugovoi immunity from prosecution.
