MOSCOW. Sept 26 (Interfax-AVN) - The so-called Litvinenko case still remains an issue hindering the development of cooperation between the Russian and British special services, said British Ambassador to Russia Tony Brenton.
Speaking on Echo Moskvy radio on Friday, Brenton said he could not see progress as regards the extradition of Russian businessman Andrei Lugovoi to London.
The British authorities suspect Lugovoi of involvement in the poisoning of former Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officer Alexander Litvinenko.
Asked whether he believed Lugovoi could ever be extradited to London, Brenton suggested that progress was possible in two or three years.
London is prepared to wait for the Russian government to answer a number of questions it has been asked, without which it would be difficult to see progress in this issue, Brenton said.
Litvinenko, who moved to the United Kingdom in 2000, died in a London hospital on November 24, 2006. Experts found out that he had been poisoned by radioactive polonium-210. British prosecution services officially charged Lugovoi, who had also served earlier for the FSB, with killing Litvinenko in May 2007.
Lugovoi, currently a member of the Russian State Duma, and two other Russian businessmen had met with Litvinenko in London three weeks before his death.
Moscow denies Lugovoi's extradition, as the Russian Constitution bans the extradition of Russian citizens to a foreign state.
Lugovoi himself has categorically denied his involvement in Litvinenko's murder.