Brits Stand Up to the Russkies

In a throwback to the Cold War that Putin's Russia seems intent on pursuing, the Brits expel 4 Russian diplomats in response to Russia's refusal to extradite a high-profile murder suspect. BBC:

Foreign Secretary David Miliband also said co-operation with Russia on a range of issues was under review.

Prosecutors want Andrei Lugovoi, an ex-KGB officer, to face trial in the UK. He denies involvement.

Moscow condemned the UK's position as "immoral" and said the expulsions would have "serious consequences".

But Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he had "no apologies for the action we have taken" in expelling the diplomats.

Speaking on a visit to Berlin, he said he wanted good relations with Russia but also said people would understand that when a prosecuting authority made it clear what was in the interests of justice and there was no co-operation, "then action has to be taken."

Former KGB agent Mr Litvinenko died of exposure to radioactive polonium-210 in London in November 2006.

At the time, Litvenenko was a British citizen.

President Vladimir Putin is a former KGB officer himself. His term of office expires soon, and he and his allies are consolidating power. And eliminating the opposition. Journalists, businessmen, and now a British citizen. Immoral.

Traces of the radioactive substance were found all over London. WSJ:

If anything, Britain's expulsion of four Russian diplomats yesterday is a tempered response to what available evidence suggests was an act of Kremlin-sanctioned terrorism on its soil. It's also a reminder of the free ride Vladimir Putin's regime has so far gotten from the West.

Gordon Brown's government had little choice but to respond to Russia's stonewalling of and contempt for the investigation into the poisoning death last year, by radioactive polonium-210, of Kremlin critic and British subject Alexander Litvinenko. Nearly a thousand Londoners were exposed to a highly lethal substance that only the most advanced poison factory could produce.

The Brits stand up to the Russkies, showing a bit of British backbone under the new Brown government.