Russia upset that Brits host its critics

Telegraph:

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Speaking a day after a new espionage row put further strain on diplomatic ties, Yury Fedotov railed against what he said was the British government's persistent refusal to extradite Boris Berezovsky, the oligarch considered prime minister Vladimir Putin's greatest personal enemy.

The ambassador said Britain had ignored at least 20 pleas to surrender Mr Berezovsky and Ahmed Zakayev, a Chechen rebel emissary.

"Unfortunately, we have not received a reasonable reply from London concerning any of them," Mr Fedotov told the Russian news agency Interfax.

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Even if Gordon Brown wanted to extradite Mr Berezovsky, he could not. A British court granted the tycoon political asylum after ruling that he could not be guaranteed a fair trial in Russia, where he is wanted on charges ranging from fraud and embezzlement to incitement.

British diplomats say that Russia, a country where the judiciary is widely regarded as a tool of the state, cannot understand why Mr Brown does not simply overrule the courts.

The ambassador's comment came a day after Russian intelligence accused a senior British diplomat in Moscow of being a spy.

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The rule of law appears to be a stranger in Russia. Bullying the Brits is unlikely to change their policy. The article suggest several rationales for the accusations against the British diplomat. Being diplomats they overlook the obvious. It is just Putin and his gang being jerks because they did not get their way.