I am surprised and shocked at how we in the UK go around accusing other countires of all kinds of crimes and look down at their governments.
lets see our history is made up of invading nations and tortrring the native populations.
we invaded iraq illegaly where tony blair claimed that saddam hussein had rockets that could reach the UK in 45mins.
we support a country (USA) that has a prison camp that has vilified the whole world guantanamo bay.
we allowed the US planes acrrying bombs to isreal who in turned destroyed lebenon.
the list is endless yet somehow people think that we have some kind of morality that allows us to critisize other countries and regimes.
wake up UK we are as bad as any of the worst regimes out there.
RUSSIA is a super power the UK is not its the KLINGON around the anal US .
we talk about the japanese giving compensation to ex POW`S for torture. will we give compmensation to the the colonies where we tortured and murdered their citizens /

thenry, london, UK

Has anyone noticed that for someone who carried Polonium across Europe, in a seemingly sedate fashion, Lugavoy looks remarkably healthy? Now why would that be the case?
Also, could their be any link with the Litvinenko case to L. Nevzlin in Israel, an exiled oligarch intent on discrediting the Kremlin and Russia and sowing discord before the Presidential elections in 2008?
Come on journalists, please answer these questions.

Alice, Brighton,

Tony Volpe's comment sounds sensible until you consider that *all* countries could have been cooperating for the past twenty years on efficient and safe nuclear energy.

Blair could have shown some leadership here, but he didn't. The fact that no-one else showed any leadership doesn't change that.

It's a hard thing to face, but western disarray on energy has indeed had the effect of enabling some very nasty regimes via high oil prices. Not just Putin, but also the Saudis and Chavez.

Yes, you can stick your head in the sand and ignore it, but that does not mean that the rest of us have to pretend that a terrible mistake has not been made. It has.

And it was made out of cowardice. We tried to appease Greenpeace, and the left of Labour, and the blow-back has been the revival of Russia.

jon livesey, Sunnyvale, CA/US

Many in British Government wrongly believe that they have obained the moral high ground in the case of Berezovsky, noting that the Russians confuse the independence of our courts with the political interference that is assumed to be commonplace in Russian courts. After the BAE fiasco it is abundantly clear that the British position is otherwise, and hypocrytical. We have no need for Berezovsky and it would be better to trade this trouble-maker for Lugovoy, if indeed that were possible. Meanwhile, we are happy to pack off our own Citizens in orange suits chained like dogs to the USA and into a highly politicised justice system that runs the biggest Gulag programme on the planet along with Guantanamo. One can only have a grudging respect for the Russia's desire to protect its citizens. As long as we harbour terrorists and criminals as "political refugees" and treat our own so poorly, we foster very little cooperation from Russia. We are rightly regarded as hypocrytes.

Richard, Bath, UK

I think the West is unnecessarily poking its nose in Russia's business. I think it all gravitates down to the oil business. Putin wants Russia's natural resources to be used for the good of his nation. The West wants a puppet governement in Russia so that it can plunder its natural wealth. The West wants to do the same to Iran. No wonder Russia supported Iran during the British Navy hostage crisis with Iran. The Middle East is burning. How many more wars will we have before Bush and Blair destroy this world

Tej, Southampton, UK

Britain should be careful with the words it chooses and how it deals with Russia. While it may be politically good meat to throw brick brats at Russia, this profoundly underestimates the seething anger at the West there, and that now they have the wealth again, how keen they are to take revenge. They have a huge range of 'weapons' they can deploy against us. This includes: energy, carbon credits, tolerating web attacks, criminal syndicates. We need them more than they need us: that is worth thinking about.

Bob Macdonald, London,

"The capacity of polonium-210 to leave a forensic science trace across Europe, surely not intended by whoever devised the scheme, is the only good thing to be said about it." Come, come. - if this were sanctioned or ordered by the Kremlin they would have been more than aware of the physics involved concerning polonium-210.

Had it occured to you that the truth might be found in the opposite to the sentence I quote??

Gervas Douglas, Andorra la Vella,

So, Bronwen, the UK becomes a good location for assassinating people?

To other comments, Russia is not a dictatorship. It has a very strong president who is manipulating things for what he sees as the country's overall benefit.

All democracies climb through various phases, starting with some some of oligarchy or autocracy. As the economy grows, democratic values inevitably take hold, and the new middle class demand their place in sun. Don't forget, Russia is just leaving behind the equivalent of a Great Depression.

If you believe Russia is a dictatoship, what is the UK? Blair took the country into a costly, pointless war in the face of overwheming public objection.

What is the US? The pathetic Democrats have effectively just backed off the point for which they were elected.

I do not believe Putin was behind the killing. There are many disgruntled factions of the KGB who have the knowlege and experience to do such things.

John Chuckman, Toronto, Canada

It is a relief to finally see something resembling a spirited response to Russia's strong-arm tactics of recent years. We are talking about a country here which is in the grips of a KGB counter-revolution and a government which has already succeeded in pushing back the meagre human rights gains of the 1990s. Putin has done so while consciously exploiting the humiliation caused by loss of Superpower status and the severely battered sense of Russian national pride to excuse endless draconian measures and state-sanctioned murder. The Kremlin now appears to be bent on reasserting its dominance throughout the former Soviet space and beyond and is getting more and more assertive by the day, as we saw recently in Estonia. The international community needs to get over the falsehood that Russia is a democratic country which can be dealt with on such terms, and speak to them in a language which they understand. Stripping Russia of G8 status would be a good start, as would adopting an inflexible policy of collective bargaining over energy supplies. Taming Russia could well turn out to be the EU's moment of truth, or alternatively its downfall.

Peter Dickinson, Kiev, Ukraine

"Life could be very hard for rich Russians in England if The Kremlin wants to be obstreperous..."
Ouch.
One thing we need to accept in UK is simple; do not threaten Russia.
You say "obstreperous", yet UK is one of the most belligerent and interfering nations in the world. We have ideas and delusions of 'power' far in excess of our actual capacities, and could be trodden down by most developed countries in a trice - and don't think that EU will come racing to our rescue!!
Russia is big enough - and developed enough - to go its own way; agreements with UK and others are merely icing on its cake. Whilst I deplore that any person might be murdered on our soil and we are unable to bring the matter to justice - we have done it a-plenty ourselves in the past.
If this sours relationships with Russia, then that would be a grave situation indeed...for us.
It is unlikely - but Blair would do well to patch this up and leave ONE useful legacy on his ( much-needed ) departure.

john, Carlisle,

So what happened to the principles of justice and fair play. russia under Putin is an evil dictatorship. If Putin had been head of an islamic state he would have been accused of harbouring terrorists who used a dirty bomb in london.

Dr Izhar Khan, Aberdeen,

Thanks Alice, but stalemate? The Russians are better chess players than that. And I don't believe they really want Berezovsky back; no disrespect to Mr Beresovsky, of course.

H. Grattan, Johannesburg, South Africa

Re: "They kill journalists there and never find the killers". Interesting. And you think that David Kelly's strange death in 2003 was suicide??

Daniel, Whatever,

John Livsey said: "I'd have more admiration for Tony Blair's "toughness" with Russia if it were not for the fact that his inaction on energy policy for the past ten years has helped push the price of oil up to levels that keep Putin in power and popular."

Ok John - I'm no fan of Blair either, but just what is it you think he could have done to dampen world oil prices? How exactly can a country of 60 million people impact on the new order in which China, India, and of course your own America suck up ever more of a diminishing resource?

I'm afraid that your comment makes no sense at all old chap...

Tony Volpe, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom

Current Russia is a dictatorship just like the communist one was. The Putin Jugend, the Livinenko poisoning, the Estland statue witch hunt, the energy blackmailing, Kossovo, and many other cases illustrate very clearly how Russia operates and where it stands: anything goes if it is thought to serve the interests of the communists and the oligarchs.

Jim, London, UK

Please consider the fact that we have now reached a stalemate. Russia wants Berezovsky back - regarded as impossible by Britain due to its laws; Britain wants Lugavoy, which Russia regards as impossible owing to its constitution.

Alice, Brighton,

This could be an interesting power struggle; maybe even one that Russia wants. Of course, they can always cut off supplies of gas, if Britain pushes too hard; would that double the cost of UK energy supplies, or triple them, do you think?

H. Grattan, Johannesburg, South Africa

As it was under Tony Blair's eyes - literally - that the first international agreement on the Baltic gas pipeline was signed at Lancaster House, in the presence of president Putin, several years ago, he is harvesting now what he has sown. His words that the range of this agreement exceeds that of a simple commercial contract, because the pipeline is of strategic importance to Britain are still ringing in my ears.
Mariusz Kuklinski

Mariusz Kuklinski, London, UK

The Russians should not spread radiation around our capital city. They kill journalists there and never find the killers. We know what Russia is and they might as well get used to it. Life could be very hard for rich Russians in England if The Kremlin wants to be obstreperous - few countries let them live tax-free in an open society.

Russia is a typical oil dictatorship and getting more like Venezuela

ToMTom, Leeds, England

I'm no defender of Blair, but what can a medium-sized country like Britain do to hold back the rise in oil prices? Can it put a dampener on the growing demand from China and India? Or boost output from oilfields? Even Bush can't do much about any of those things.

Michael, Dubai,

I'd have more admiration for Tony Blair's "toughness" with Russia if it were not for the fact that his inaction on energy policy for the past ten years has helped push the price of oil up to levels that keep Putin in power and popular.

jon livesey, Sunnyvale, CA/US