Litvinenko probe does not affect Russia-U.K. relations - Lavrov
07/12/2006 14:01 MOSCOW, December 7 (RIA Novosti) - The investigation into the murder of Russian security service defector Alexander Litvinenko in London does not affect relations with Britain on the Russian side, the foreign minister said Thursday.
"I cannot judge how it affects [relations] on the British side," Sergei Lavrov said, adding that attempts to make the case a political sensation are futile.
Litvinenko, 43, an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin's administration and a close associate of exiled oligarch Boris Berezovsky, died in a London hospital November 23. His body was found to contain a lethal dose of polonium-210, a radioactive isotope.
Traces of polonium-210 were also found at a dozen sites in London and on British Airways aircraft flying the London-Moscow route.
British police said Wednesday that they will investigate Litvinenko's case as a murder, given the preliminary results of the forensic examination.
"We have always been ready to assist the investigation," Lavrov said, adding that Russia accepted British investigators as soon as Britain forwarded a relevant request.
British investigators arrived in Moscow Monday to interview people who met with Litvinenko around the time of his reported poisoning by radiation in early November.
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