Britain and Russia keep settling accounts like two sullen adolescents. The Cold War is over but symptoms of withdrawal are nearly beyond endurance and addiction to confrontation is too strong. Both sides therefore gladly enter into conflicts that have no other purpose than demonstration of a high testosterone level.
Who poisoned Alexander Litvinenko is anyone's guess, but the British regard Andrei Lugovoy as the prime suspect. The British government asked the Russian authorities to extradite Lugovoy to have him stand trial in London. The Russians flatly refused. Downing Street said it would expel four Russian diplomats and stiffen the visa regime. The Russians followed suit and expelled four British diplomats from Moscow as if the Cold War had never ended.
Practically everyone outside Russia finds it hard to believe that Litvinenko's murder was not ordered and orchestrated in Moscow. The prevailing opinion in London is that the Kremlin was certainly involved. I choose to see Litvinenko's murder as an indication that the Russian secret services need firmer political control. The British authorities are vexed which is only understandable. "This murder exposed hundreds of others - both residents of London and guests - to the danger of contamination," said Foreign Secretary David Miliband. On the other hand, the British request for Lugovoy's extradition was not serious meaning that the British had known all along how the Russian would react. It was just an excuse to remind the world that Britain belongs to the class of alpha males.
I will never believe that Miliband's experts failed to inform him of the existence of Article 61 (Part I) of the Russian Constitution: "No citizen of the Russian Federation may be extradited from the Russian Federation or turned over to another state." And yet, Miliband pretends to have discovered this unfortunate clause only from the letter from the Russian Prosecutor General's Office.
The British government knew that Russia would be compelled to amend its Constitution to comply with the extradition request. What kind of reaction did official London expect? Miliband said other countries had amended their constitutions to comply with the European extradition warrant. What he did not say was that these countries were EU members. Russia is not.
Article 15 (Part IV) of the Russian Constitution states that "Whenever an international treaty the Russian Federation is signatory to sets the rules and procedures different from those specified by the acting legislation, the rules and procedures suggested by the international treaty prevail." Russia has bilateral extradition treaties with a lot of countries but Britain is not one of them. It is Britain that does not want any such treaties with Russia and not vice versa. It is Britain that denies Russia Boris Berezovsky and Alexander Zhukov, the people wanted in Russia for what is regarded as a crime under both Russian and British law.
London's consent to have Lugovoy tried in Moscow will be the optimal way out - provided that the British prosecution is permitted to present its case in public. It will be a great test for Russian justice. Britain had better go for this compromise without delay or the eye-for-eye game may foment some truly unsolvable problems.
