July 19, 2007
Russia Matches U.K. Diplomat Expulsions
Counterterrorism Cooperation Also Will End As Tit-For-Tat Over Spy Murder Mounts
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Play CBS Video Video London And Moscow Face Off Britain's investigation of a former KGB agent's murder in London has Russia and the U.K. locked in a game of diplomatic chess. Richard Roth reports.
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Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin speaks in the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow, Thursday, July 19, 2007. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev)
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Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky, a vocal critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, in London in this April 3, 2007, file photo, was the target of a plot to assassinate him, according to police. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)
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Russian businessman Andrei Lugovoi, in a May 31, 2007, file photo, is at the center of an extradition tug-of-war between Russia and Britain, which wants to try Lugovoi in the poisoning murder of ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
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Interactive Mystery Of The Poisoned Spy A former KGB agent gets a fatal dose, and traces of the poison keep turning up.
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Fast Facts Russia Learn about the people, economy and history.
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Fast Facts United Kingdom Learn about the people, economy and history.
After Russia refused to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, who is accused of killing Litvinenko in London, Britain said Monday it would expel four Russian diplomats and place restrictions on visas issued to Russian government officials.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin announced the British expulsions after British Ambassador Anthony Brenton was summoned to the ministry earlier in the day.
Kamynin described Russia's response as "targeted, balanced and the minimum necessary."
Kamynin also said Russia would stop issuing visas to British officials and seeking British visas for Russian officials. He said Russia would halt counterterrorism cooperation with Britain.
"To our regret, cooperation between Russia and Britain on issues of fighting terrorism becomes impossible," he said.
Kamynin said the interests of tourists and businessmen would not be hurt. He said that on visa issues, Russia would mirror Britain's actions from now on.
Brenton said he met with Kamynin's deputy, Alexander Grushko. "We of course discussed the Litvinenko case. He gave me several notices for me to pass on to London. I won't comment on the contents," Brenton said, the Interfax news agency reported.
Emerging from the Foreign Office in London to make a brief statement on the matter Thursday, Foreign Minister David Miliband said, "we are disappointed that the Russian government should have signaled no new cooperation" in Lugovoi's extradition.
He called the Russian moves "completely unjustified".
Seeking to show what Britain feels is a strong hand of public opinion, Miliband said he was "much heartened" by statements of support from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the European Union, and the international community at large.
"This is an issue of rule of law to our minds, not an issue of politics," Rice said during a news conference in the Portuguese capital Thursday, where she was to attend a conference on Middle East peace. "It is a matter of Russia cooperating fully in what is simply an effort to solve what was a very terrible crime committed on British soil."
Litvinenko, a fierce Kremlin critic, died Nov. 23 after ingesting radioactive polonium-210. From his deathbed, he said Russian President Vladimir Putin was behind his poisoning.
Britain sent investigators to Russia in the case, but they were not permitted to question suspects. After Britain named Russian businessman Lugovoi as its chief suspect and demanded his extradition, Russia refused, saying its constitution prevents such a move.
Lugovoi denies any involvement in Litvinenko's death, and insists he is just a witness in the case, not a suspect. British authorities said traces of polonium-210 were found in a hotel used by Lugovoi in London, and in two planes on which he flew.
Meanwhile, London police said Wednesday they had arrested a man on suspicion of conspiring to murder Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky — a Kremlin critic and friend of Litvinenko.
Russia has long-resented Britain granting asylum to Berezovsky and Chechen rebel envoy Akhmed Zakayev.
On both sides, "the degree of feeling offense is too strong to seek reconciliation," said Natalia Leshchenko, an analyst at the Global Insight think-tank. She suggested that London and Moscow will spend the near future venting their grievances as strongly as possible before either would make a move toward reconciliation.
For now, top officials from both sides indicate that the other would have to make the first move. Russian Ambassador Yuri Fedotov said resolution largely depends on "Britain's political will."
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
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See all 45 CommentsWe're obviously not going to persuade one another!
Can we at least agree that war is abhorrent, and that accusations of responsibility for war, even those long past, are certain to arouse strong feelings?
It is curious that Trotsky, with his gold and his Jewish revolutionaries were financed by New York bankers, allowed to leave the US to help destroy our Tsarist ally and knock it out of the war...His ship was stopped by the Canadians who didn't understand this strange voyage and the ship was ordered released by Woodrow Wilson. There was more at work here than meets the eye and I fully understand. Combine this with Warburg's "sealed car" to Finland Station for Lenin on the German side.... it is fascinating that both the Germans and the Anglo-American wanted the Tsar destroyed.
Two things about World War I cited by you.
First, George Dangerfield's book 'The Strange Death of Liberal England'. A great work, published in 1935. As you'll know, Dangerfield was a journalist turned author, born British but adopting US citizenship in 1943.
His book brilliantly accounts for the decline of English Liberalism in the decade to 1914. It was remarkable in 1935 and remains so.
But Dangerfield's book doesn't make Britain 'largely responsible'for World War I. That's your interpretation - broadly Marxist. You ignore the motivations, characters and actions of leading individuals in different countries.
Second, Lenin's publication of the Secret Treaties. Examine his motivation ; why he did it, the line he took in Pravda, his call for a 'new diplomacy' rejecting the nationalisms of all countries, not just Britain and France.
Lenin was a political theorist, also a realist and a man of ruthless action. The deaths, famine and chaos after the Russian defeat at Tannenberg in 1914, and the Tsar's subsequent military incompetence, gave Lenin his chance which he took brilliantly in 1917. Put very crudely, World War I did the Bolsheviks a favour.
It's always been hard to understand why World War I began, though easier to see how (Sarajevo, railway lines, etc). My view is that the Great European Powers shared equal responsibility, i.e.Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary.
Polish intransigence and bellicosity in the Thirties is simply ignored in most history books in the US. Her impositions on the Czechs were ignored, while Hitler's redrawing of the Versailles abomination is hit upon as being particularly abhorrent.
Britain was not interested in "peace in our time" at Munich and, despite the Hitler-Stalin Pact, Stalin was preparing, for an invasion of not only Germany, but all of Western Europe. Victor Suvorov's work makes the argument best for Stalin's preparations for invasion. The Brits were pushing him to invade Germany... what they knew about Stalin's other plans, I don't know.
that are pro-putin for all russian youth.
he is extolled immensely. his enemies are
denoted aptly as fascists. they are called
the nashi. like our boy scouts, cub scouts,
girl scouts, indian guides, kkk kamps, jewish
defense league camps, bluebirds camps, brownie
camps, little league, pop warner camps, etc.
etc. yes, here in america checks and balances
do reign. its summertime for campers.
there are armed camps too. odd how diametrically
opposed camps are just down the street from
one another. rootin tootin putin is unifying
his nation, promoting lots of pregnancies,
through the camping philosophy. get in that
tent and get back to work, making children
for the motherland. they may even lower
the marriage age to 12-13, as soon as the
sap begins to run. maybe we should too.
we have only 300 million folks. china
has one billion. how come?
I'll pass. Your nest isn't big enough. LOL!!! But if you are desparately lonely singinrick will be arriving soon. You can chirp chirp while he sings and spews hatred for Muslims. You two should get along just fine.
You just caught me, I was about to fly off to find a place to roost. I was going to ask you if you would like to slide onto my perch but you might have taken it the wrong way.
Bye for now.
I already commented on the inability of my "keyboard" to function properly.
No thanks.
poop poop stink stink...
As a graduate specialist in the history of war and military organisation, I accept the fact of German economic hegemony in Europe before 1914. Indeed, the German heavy chemical industry surpassed Britain's as early as 1883.
You said Britain was largely responsible for both World Wars, but your latest post doesn't mention the Second.
I must declare an interest. I was evacuated from the bombing, my mother narrowly escaped strafing by an enemy fighter down a street, my soldier father never saw me until I could walk and talk. Such things pale compared with the suffering of others then and now, but they do colour the mind.
It's true that Britain's 1930s policy of appeasement gave the Nazis time and encouragement (though buying Britain time), but this wasn't a greater factor than US isolationism.
You can't ignore the aggression of 1930s Fascists. If, as I suspect, you'd blame British policies for conditions which aided Hitler, and 19th century Englishmen like Houston Chamberlain for Nazi Aryan theory, I merely say that this would be too selective, ignoring other evidence.
I don't believe a credible case can be made for Britain being "largely responsible" for World War II, other than a propaganda case, which is exactly what Hitler and his minions tried to do from 1939 onwards.
Geopolitically, the City power was faced with economic challenges on all fronts and without the war with Germany would have gone into decline. I think Dangerfield's, THE STRANGE DEATH OF LIBERAL ENGLAND, pretty much sums up the domestic economic challenges that ruling circles in London faced--and overcame--with the war. Germany was beating the pants off Britain in economic competition in terms of product quality, price and customer satisfaction.
The war goals revealed when Lenin published the secret treaties gave the game away regarding the the pious braying of the Allies about 'German militarism, self-determination and democracy'.
I've just come back from having a cup of tea and read your latest diatribe.
Is it my imagination, or are your posts becoming increasingly strident?
According to you, we British "were largely responsible for the outbreak of the World Wars".
Not one World War, mark you, but both of them!
So despite the best efforts of Kaiser Bill, Musso, Mr Schickelgruber, Uncle Joe (Nazi/Soviet Pact) and old Tojo, it was we who were largely responsible - quite an achievement, don't you agree?
And we were on the winning side both times!
I'm going to have another cup of tea. You should try it, it might calm you down.
tittttttt for tat. Rat eats rat. Who the fvck does CBS think they are kidding with their pathetic censorship?
Oh well, birdseed for a trolling starfinch.
Posted by torocaca
-cacadetoro, amazed by your capacity of typing on a keyboard. Must be a dried one, aint ya?
'The Brittish have a...'
Don't you mean British?
Would you like to share my cuttlefish bone?
cheep,cheep.
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