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Britain said on Tuesday that Russia would have no justification for retaliation against British decision to expel four Russian diplomats from London.
"The Foreign Secretary has set out our position. No retaliation on Russia's behalf is justified," a Foreign Office spokesman said.
Earlier on Tuesday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko warned that Russia will offer a precisely targeted and adequate reaction to Britain's decision to expel four Russian diplomats following Moscow's refusal to extradite a main suspect in the poisoning case of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko.
He said the step Britain is taking will heavily complicate bilateral cooperation in security issues.
聽"It is obvious that the line London is pursuing will complicate or make impossible cooperation between law enforcement bodies in issues relating to the safety of millions of British and Russian citizens," Grushko was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying.
On Monday, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Britain would expel four diplomats from the Russian embassy in London due to Russia's refusal to extradite Andrei Lugovoi in the poisoning case of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko.
Lugovoi, also a former KGB officer, was accused of murdering Litvinenko.
Litvinenko died of radioactive poisoning, from Polonium 210, in London on Nov. 23. Experts investigating his death found radiation traces at a dozen locations and on two British Airways airplanes that flew the Moscow-London route.
Lugovoi, a business partner of Litvinenko, met him at a London hotel on Nov. 1. Litvinenko fell ill on that day and died weeks later in a London hospital.
On July 5, Russia's Prosecutor General's Office formally rejected Britain's request for the extradition of Lugovoi.
Russia has said its refusal was based on a constitutional ban on turning Russian citizens over to foreign countries, as well as a European convention that allows signatories to refuse to extradite their nationals.
Editor: Yan
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