[JURIST] The UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office [official website] announced the expulsion of four Russian diplomats [press release] and the immediate suspension of visa facilitation negotiations with Russia Monday, blaming "Russia's failure to cooperate to find a solution" in the two countries' differences over Britain's extradition request [JURIST report] for Andrei Lugovoy [JURIST news archive], wanted [JURIST report] by the UK Crown Prosecution Service for his alleged role in the poisoning-murder of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko [BBC profile; BBC timeline]. Prime Minister Gordon Brown [official profile] said that Britain would like to maintain "the best of relationships with Russia" [press release] but said that:

...people have got to understand that when a murder is committed on British soil, and when innocent people are put at risk by the method by which that murder is conducted, and when we have had a full police investigation and then we have the Independent Prosecuting Authority demanding that a certain person be arrested for the murder that has taken place and for the damage done to other civilians as a result of that, then we expect authorities in other parts of the world to co-operate with us in bringing that person to justice.