Monday, February 13, 2012

Russia

Lavrov Says Russia To Normalize Relations With U.K.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (file photo) (Council of Europe)

July 20, 2007-- Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says Moscow is ready to normalize relations with Britain.

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July 20, 2007

Speaking to reporters in Berlin, Lavrov said relations should be built on respect for each other's interests and common sense.

Lavrov's comments came after Russia announced it will expel four British diplomats.

The expulsions were made in response to Britain's decision earlier this week to send home four Russian diplomats after Moscow refused to extradite the chief suspect in the radioactive poisoning death of former Russian security officer Aleksandr Litvinenko.

(Interfax, ITAR-TASS)

Tit For Tat

James Bond isn't the only character in Russia and Britain's history of espionage

UNDIPLOMATIC HISTORY

1960-71: 27 Soviet Embassy officials told to leave the United Kingdom.

1971: Britain expels 105 staffers of Soviet diplomatic missions for alleged spying. They are exposed by Oleg Lyalin, the first Soviet intelligence agent to defect since World War II. Russia responds by expelling 18 British Embassy staffers from Moscow.

1994: John Scarlett, now head of MI6, expelled from Moscow, where he was serving as an MI6 officer. In response Britain expels a Russian diplomat. Russian company manager Vadim Sintsov arrested for spying for Britain, is sentenced to 10 years of hard labor.

1995: Britain expels 25 alleged Soviet spies; USSR follows by expelling 25 Britons.

1996: Russia expels nine British diplomats it claims are running a spy ring. Britain responds by throwing out four Russians.

2000: Junior Russian diplomat Platon Obukhov, the son of a former Soviet deputy foreign minister, sentenced to 11 years in prison for spying for Britain. Verdict is overturned by Russian Supreme Court.

2004: Weapons expert Igor Sutyagin convicted of treason and passing classified military information to a British company alleged to be a front for the CIA. Sentenced to 15 years in prison.

2006: Russia accuses four British Embassy employees of conducting an espionage operation that included the use of a "spy rock." Russia chooses not to expel the four.

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