Monday November 2, 2009
Britain seeks to end 5 year freeze in Russia ties
By Conor Sweeney
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Britain's foreign minister called on Monday for a fresh approach to relations with Russia as the two countries tried to move beyond a bitter row over the murder of a Kremlin critic in London.
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Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband meets with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, November 2, 2009. (REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin) |
"It is very important that we do not paper over our differences but we do not allow them to block our cooperation where possible," David Miliband told reporters at a news briefing after talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
Relations between Britain and Russia nosedived after the 2006 murder of Alexander Litvinenko with polonium-210, a rare radioactive isotope, blamed by his associates on Russian agents.
Britain has called on Moscow to extradite former KGB bodyguard Andrei Lugovoy to stand trial for the murder.
Russian officials, and Lugovoy, have denied any link to the murder.
Moscow has also ruled out extradition. "Our stance has not changed," Lavrov said at the briefing with Miliband, who was on the first full visit by a British foreign minister to Moscow since 2004.
He said it was unrealistic for Britain to demand that Russia change its constitution to permit the extradition of Lugovoy.
But he thanked Miliband for "good, productive talks" and said he hoped the visit would help "move our positions closer".
Diplomats said the two ministers discussed Iran's nuclear programme but gave no further details.
Miliband said Russia and Britain wanted a prompt response to a U.N.-drafted nuclear fuel deal designed to allay western fears Iran is seeking a nuclear bomb. Iran says it is seeking only nuclear power.
LITVINENKO DOCUMENTS
Lavrov said that Britain had not yet provided the proper documentation about the Litvinenko case, while Miliband said
full information had been passed to Russia.
"That information has not been provided in a comprehensive way. Our prosecutors have their own rules to follow and the British colleagues know what sort of material should be presented," Lavrov said.
"They have sent substantial information to their Russian counterparts," said Miliband.
Even before the Litvinenko murder, mutual espionage accusations between London and Moscow, and Britain's granting of political asylum to some of the Kremlin's enemies, had cast a pall over bilateral business and trade.
Britain accounts for a tenth, or $24.6 billion, of the foreign investment Russia has received since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, according to Russian state statistics.
BP Plc has a 50 percent stake in Russia's third-biggest oil-and-gas producer, TNK-BP, and Russian firms used London to list shares and sell bonds during the boom years.
Russia will hold a preliminary road show in London this week for a sovereign Eurobond issue, which Moscow needs to cover a budget deficit.
(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge, editing by Myra MacDonald)
Copyright © 2008 Reuters
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