Hopes downplayed for Miliband Russia visit
By politics.co.uk staff
Hopes of a breakthrough in Anglo-Russian relations are being downplayed as the foreign secretary visits the country for the first time in five years.
It has been half a decade since a foreign secretary has visited Russia, but hostility over the Litvinenko affair, among a host of foreign policy issues, means progress is unlikely.
David Miliband will raise the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, exactly three years ago, but are not expecting any substantial change in the Russian position.
The former KGB officer was living in London when he died of radiation poisoning. Russia refuses to extradite the man London holds responsible for the death, and the impasse was defined by tit-for-tat expulsions among the two countries.
Russia is irritated by British refusals to hand over wealthy dissidents living in London to Vladimir Putin’s regime, which currently holds Dmitry Medvedev as president.
British officials are still bitter at Russia’s armed intervention in Georgia during the Olympics last year.
Mr Miliband will be concentrating on ensuring Russia can help in creating stability in Afghanistan and support tougher measures to prevent Iranian development in nuclear weapons.
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