Litvinenko affair set to hurt UK-Russia relations

MOSCOW, May 23 (Reuters) The Russian suspected in Britain of murdering Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko is unlikely ever to stand trial and the affair could become a longstanding sore in relations, analysts said today.

British prosecutors announced yesterday they want to bring Andrei Lugovoy before a British court and charge him with poisoning Litvinenko in London last November. But Russia's constitution forbids it from extraditing its own citizens.

The naming of Lugovoy as the murder suspect set Britain and Russia, former Cold War foes, on a diplomatic collision course.

Analysts said it could cause a further deterioration in frosty relations and deepen Russia's isolation from the West.

Britain maintained the pressure on Moscow for an extradition, with a spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair saying: ''Russia should abide by its international obligations.'' ''We believe ... it is through abiding by international obligations that people have the confidence in terms of whether it's investment, or just normal relations. I'm sure Russia is as aware of that as we are.'' Boris Berezovsky, a London-based Russian multi-millionaire and Putin opponent who was a pall bearer at Litvinenko's funeral, said he did not expect Russia to cooperate.

''(Russian President Vladimir) Putin's government will never allow the extradition of Lugovoy,'' Berezovsky told BBC radio.

Lugovoy, a former KGB state security agent who now runs a private business in Russia, sounded calm and untroubled in a brief telephone interview with Reuters.

''Of course I consider myself not guilty. I am not saying anything else. Of course I am not guilty,'' Lugovoy said.

Russian prosecutors could prosecute Lugovoy themselves using evidence supplied by British colleagues. But former Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Skuratov said that was unlikely.

''Naturally, on this sort of case no one is going to do that,'' the Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily quoted Skuratov as saying.

The worst punishment Lugovoy would face would be being unable to travel outside Russia for fear of arrest, except to friendly countries which were unlikely to extradite him, Skuratov said.

''I think the British will put out a warrant for him through their national Interpol office after which he will only be able to travel to Belarus,'' he said.

BUSINESS AS USUAL Lugovoy appeared to be going about his business as normal. A photographer told Reuters he had seen Lugovoy at his firm's offices in a Moscow business centre yesterday.

Litvinenko died an agonising death in a London hospital last year after ingesting a fatal dose of polonium 210, a radioactive isotope.

In a letter read out by friends after his death, Litvinenko accused Putin of being responsible.

The Kremlin denied the accusation but it renewed anger that Britain had given refugee status to Berezovsky, who is wanted on corruption charges and who, the Kremlin says, is using London as a base to undermine Putin.

''The latest developments represent yet another blow to Russia's relations with the West,'' said Yaroslav Lissovolik, an analyst at Deutsche UFG.

''While Russia's relations with the UK had already cooled in recent years ... the latest round of the 'Litvinenko affair' is bound to make matters even worse.'' Asked about the case at a news conference, First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said: ''I do not see any link between the investigation into the death of Litvinenko and British-Russian relations.'' REUTERS RJ BST1846