EU backs Britain in Russia dispute

LONDON -- The European Union threw its weight behind Britain yesterday in a dispute with Russia over its refusal to extradite a man suspected of killing a former KGB agent in London last year.

Britain announced on Monday that it was expelling four Russian diplomats to show its mounting frustration with Moscow's lack of cooperation over the killing of Alexander Litvinenko.

Portugal, the EU president, urged Russia to cooperate with Britain. "The EU expresses its disappointment at Russia's failure to cooperate constructively with the UK authorities," it said in a statement.

Underlining EU solidarity with Britain, it said the issue "raises important questions of common interest to EU member states," adding that Litvinenko's slaying was "a grave and reckless crime."

Relations between Russia and the EU have deteriorated over several issues, such as energy policy, Kosovo, and Moscow's treatment of European firms operating there.

Russia has yet to respond to Britain's decision to expel diplomats.

It was not clear whether the EU criticism of Russia over the case might push Moscow to respond more sharply.

British prosecutors want former Russian agent Andrei Lugovoy to stand trial in Britain for the murder of Litvinenko, a British citizen who became a critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin while living in London.

The agonizing death of Litvinenko, who slowly wasted away in a London hospital, grabbed the world's attention because he had been poisoned with the rare radioactive isotope polonium 210 and blamed Putin.

Also yesterday, self-exiled Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky, a fierce critic of Putin and friend of Litvinenko, said he too had been the target of a murder plot that bore "all the hallmarks of Russian security service activity."

British police said yesterday they had arrested a man in London in June on suspicion of conspiracy to murder in connection with the alleged plot.

He was released without charge and handed over to immigration authorities.

Britain's interior ministry declined to comment on the case, but Berezovsky told a news conference he had been told the man had since been deported to Russia.