Russia vows "appropriate" response to UK expulsions

By Michael Stott

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia promised on Tuesday an "adequate and appropriate" response very soon to Britain's expulsion of four of its diplomats but said it did not want ordinary citizens or businessmen to suffer.

Britain said on Monday it was throwing out the diplomats in retaliation for Moscow's refusal to extradite the key suspect in the murder last year in London of former Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko. Russia's constitution bans extradition.

"They are trying to punish us for following our own constitution," Alexander Grushko, a Russian deputy foreign minister, told reporters in Moscow.

"This is a direct path to confrontation."

He said Russia would inform British authorities very soon about its countermeasures but did not say what they might be.

"We will fully take into account the interests of ordinary citizens, tourists, participants in cultural and scientific exchanges and business circles," he added.

"We do not want them to suffer because of London's political actions."

A spokesman for Britain's Foreign Office said no retaliation by Russia would be justified.

BUSINESS TIES

Britain and Russia have a booming business relationship, with trade at record highs. Russian companies rely on London's financial markets to raise billions of dollars in capital and British firms have invested heavily in Russia's oil sector.

British ambassador to Russia Tony Brenton voiced hopes that business between the two former Cold War foes would not suffer.

"We do not expect our disappointment with the Russian authorities about the Litvinenko case to affect the economic sphere," he told Russian reporters. "Indeed we expect British-Russian economic ties to continue to grow."

The Kremlin has so far stayed silent on the expulsions, with President Vladimir Putin avoiding public statements and his official spokespeople lying low.

Russia's ambassador to London Yury Fedotov told reporters bilateral relations had deteriorated and a solution depended largely on the "political will of the British government".

"It's really hard to be optimistic today. I hope in the long run our relations will be restarted, reloaded so to say, but that is not the best moment of the history of our bilateral relations," he said.