I heard on the news in the UK the other day, something about Russia having previously expelled Russian citizens to Kazakhstan in contravention of its constitution. It would be interesting if a Times journalist could follow this up.

Alice, Moscow,

After weeks of issuing the usual empty threats and insults, Putin is suddenly backtracking as fast as possible here.
I imagine he's terrified that other EU leaders may offer their countries as a suitable neutral venue for a trial.

adrian, London/New York,

"Moscow's intention is to isolate Britain" Little poor thing Britain is! So ridiculous. it all looks as if British government lost the game which it initiated itself, for some reason they've chosen Russia to gain some points among its people. and... nothing. They made it worse, I suppose.

Tatiana, Moscow, Russia

2Crris: Oh, dear! I’m so sorry it hurts your feelings, but you can’t expect us to grieve while acting as peculiar as Mr. Brown & Co. We laugh because it’ laughable. Though it may seem ‘unjustified’ (the latest British invention!) to laugh until obtaining British (or Roman for that matter) prior consent in writing.
But anyway, there's no need to worry! We'll try to learn to be polite from you, i.e. to use ‘you’re an idiot’ for an argument in political and legal discussions. That would definitely increase the 'degree' of civilization.
Dear Cris, someone very clever (from civilized part of Europe) once said that the level of intellectual development can be determined by the ability of the person to laugh at him/herself. Rehashing this aphorism one can say that the level of civilization of a nation can be determined by ability of its people to laugh at the actions of its government despite of patriotic feelings. We are able to do it, and you? And this ability definitely helps to measure national political actions by common sense.

Irina, Moscow, Russia

No mention of quite a significant development in this sorry debacle, namely Germany's cowardly and frankly scandalous assertion that the UK 'over-reacted' by expelling four diplomats. Entschuldigung?

How would the Germans have reacted if the Russians had murdered a German citizen and radioactivated parts of Frankfurt?

It looks as if Germany might be reverting to type and sending out feelers to Russia with a view to reinstating the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. Europe needs this like a hole in the head.

Sabremesh, London,

‘Britain have been dodging for years Russia's requests to extradite two wanted men (Berezovski and Zakayev, I think), who are not by the way British citizens’
This and recent event of British diplomats being caught in Moscow on espionage activities - that’s exactly what makes the situation look ridiculous. You want respect and cooperation; you better show some respect and cooperation yourself. Anyway, in diplomatic law ‘mirror’ actions are common rule.
And being uncooperative in the field of punishment of terrorists on the part of Britain that experiences problems with terrorism this very days… it seems a little bit unwise. To say the least of it.

Irina, Moscow, Russia

The demand to hand over Lugovoy in violation of the Russian constitution is a provocation. The same as the award of knighthood given recently to the former KGB officer and now a traitor and a renegate Gordievskiy. Does not the British gouvernement realize how this is viewed in Russia? All this is very regretable because previously a lot of russians were anglophils.

Peter, Novosibirsk, Russia

It seems to me that matters are quite simple: Russia' s constitution prohibits it from handing over its citizens to third countries.
No democratic country in the world would infringe its own constitution to settle a diplomatic row.
Those who claim Russia should hand over Andrei Lugovoi to Britain are urging Russia to take an undemocratic stance against its own citizen Andrei Lugovoi.
Awkwardly, this very same camp is the one which seizes every opportunity to blame Russia for its lack of democracy, while selectively urging it to be undemocratic...

Gabriele Jannis, Moscow, Russia

Weighed enough article.
Unusually, but there is no hysterics which takes place the last some days in the majority of the western newspapers.

Dmitriy, Korolev, Russia

As the EU becomes more dependent on Russian energy supplies it becomes more suseptible to
economic blackmail for daring to stand up to the Russian government.

Bruce L. Northwood, Washington, D.C., USA

There is no realistic prospect of getting that guy out of Moscow, but the British government did what it should have done. Extradition is unconstitutional in Russia, and, knowing that, the Brits still expelled the diplomats after putting the Russians in an impossible position by their request. Which means that the Russian government was punished not for the failure to extradite, but for what they did in London. They may fake incomprehension and outrage all they want, and feed that to their public (which is only too happy to swallow), but they KNOW they have just been whipped for bad behavior, and all they can is try to save face. Now maybe they'll think twice next time. Russia should have a tough foreign policy protecting its national interests (e.g., American missiles should NOT be in Poland), but solving internal feuds by radioactive murders in major world capitals has nothing to do with national interests and is outrageous.

Yaroslav, Philadelphia, USA

Let me see, Britain have been dodging for years Russia's requests to extradite two wanted men (Berezovski and Zakayev, I think), who are not by the way British citizens, and that appears to be fine by the american and european "justice". Then Russia refuces to extradite her own citizen, whose constitutional rights she's obliged to protect and somehow this is wrong by the same "impartial" US/EU "justice". How can anyone see it other than a double standard?

GK, San Jose, California, USA

"This action are common matter for jokes these days", well, that's kinda impolite this when someone might joke on russian civilisation's degree. Russia, civilisation is a long way to go, keep going like this and your country in 20 years will starve in the middle of Siberia....more than before.

Cris, roma, Italia

Bye-bye! We aren't forgot Sevastopol.

Ivan Ivanow, Moskva, Rossiya

Well, you know, it's not that difficult to show incomprehension when the actions of British government are so erratic and bizarre that they hardly could be comprehended. In Russia those actions are common matter for jokes these days. Sorry, but that's true.

Irina, Moscow, Russia

Britain cannot "fold" here, and fellow EU governments and the US must back Britain here. Radioactive murders inside the country of a country's citizens if state sponsored are acts of war. Russia's shielding of the suspect shows some sponsorship.

What if Russia and UK agreed to send Lugovoy to the Hague?

Chris Jeter, New York, New York

I suppose, that those witnesses who don't want to go to Russia, can always give evidence by video link , and anyway, the "Locker that was not A" trial, conducted in a neutral country, cost 80 million pounds and there have been some serious doubts raised over the justice of that decision. It would be interesting to see the efficacy or otherwise of the Russian legal system. Seven years cleaning out the sewerage system in the winning Winter Olympic bid city, might be a more appropriate punishment for the guilty perhaps.

T.R.E Hugger, Anglesey,

I'm not sure I understand the British approach to this. The Russian government has requested 4 people to be extradited from the UK such things as war crimes and terrorism yet Britian fails to comply with this. How can they castigate Russia for not responding, when they will not respond to Russia's requests. Fair enough these cases might not be so high profile as Mr Litvenenko's Murder, but surely crime is crime as should be dealt with as such.

John Paul Ritchie, Edinburgh, UK