MOSCOW, July 23 (RIA Novosti) - Russian prosecutors proposed Monday that the U.K. request Russia launch criminal proceedings against businessman Andrei Lugovoi, the key suspect in the murder of former Russian security service officer Alexander Litvinenko.
"We propose sending to the Prosecutor General's Office a request to launch criminal proceedings with all the available documentation attached," Deputy Russian Prosecutor General Alexander Zvyagintsev told journalists.
He said Russian prosecutors are ready to help Britain in the case, and that Russia cooperates with foreign states in criminal prosecutions of people accused of committing crimes outside the country.
Zvyagintsev also called Britain's response to Moscow's refusal to extradite Lugovoi "ungrounded and politically motivated."
Russia expelled four British diplomats last Thursday, imposed visa restrictions, and suspended cooperation with the U.K. in fighting terrorism, following similar measures by London, amid the bitter row over Moscow's refusal to extradite Lugovoi, charged with poisoning Litvinenko in London last November.
Lugovoi, a former Kremlin bodyguard, denies the charges, and Russia says its Constitution does not permit the extradition of its nationals.
"Britain is demanding that Russia change its Constitution for the extradition of a single individual," Zvyagintsev said, adding that there has been no such precedent yet, and that no country has yet changed its constitution to resolve such an issue.
"The calls to circumvent the requirements of the Constitution are all the more inadequate. The British side cares little about the supremacy of law," the deputy prosecutor general said.
Zvyagintsev said Russia's law enforcement authorities would authorize the arrest of any person found to have committed the crime.
A deputy head of the Prosecutor General's office's department for high-priority cases, Andrei Mayorov, on Monday called into question London's objectivity in its investigation.
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