Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday Britain's
demand that Russia amend its constitution to extradite a main
suspect in the poisoning case of Alexander Litvinenko is "a vestige
of colonial thinking."
"What they are proposing is obviously a vestige of colonial
thinking," the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Putin as saying at a
meeting with youth organizations at his presidential residence
outside Moscow.
Britain has asked Russia to hand over Andrei Lugovoi, who
British prosecutors have charged with murdering Litvinenko, while
Russia insists he should be tried in Russia as stipulated by its
constitution.
Putin said Britain has not yet extradited 30 people who are
hiding in London and accused of involvement in crimes in
Russia.
"They do not extradite anyone, including those suspected and
accused of terrorist activities, who hide on their territory, but
they issue demands to other countries, including recommendations to
change the constitution, which insult our country," Putin said.
"Their brains, not our constitution, should be changed. The
things they are proposing are a relic of colonial thinking," the
Itar-Tass news agency quoted him as saying.
Litvinenko died of radioactive poisoning last November in
London. Lugovoi, a business partner of Litvinenko and also a former
Russian secret agent, met him at a London hotel on Nov. 1, the day
Litvinenko fell ill.
Russia has said its rejection was based both on a constitutional
ban on turning Russian citizens over to foreign countries and on a
European convention that allows signatories to refuse to extradite
their nationals.
Moscow and London announced earlier this month reciprocal
expulsions of diplomats, escalating the dispute over the
extradition of Lugovoi.
(Xinhua News Agency July 25, 2007)
