BBC Report Prompts Russian Accusations on Britain

TOYAKO, Japan — Russia accused hostile elements in Britain of trying to sabotage a thaw in ties after a British Broadcasting Corp. report linked the Russian government to the murder of the dissident ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko.

The BBC report, which cited unidentified people within the British government, shows that "not everyone in the U.K. has a constructive approach," the foreign policy adviser of President Medvedev of Russia, Sergei Prikhodko, told reporters yesterday in a phone link-up.

Mr. Medvedev met Prime Minister Brown on Monday at the Group of Eight industrialized nations's summit in Toyako, Japan. The two leaders failed to heal the rift over the Litvinenko killing, which has driven ties to a post-Cold War low.

Russia refused to hand over an ex-KGB bodyguard, Andrei Lugovoi, who is wanted for the 2006 radiation-poisoning murder in London of Litvinenko, a Kremlin critic who fled Russia for Britain. Russia's constitution forbids the extradition of Russian citizens. The dispute sparked a tit-for-tat expulsion of diplomats, and Russia closed British cultural offices outside Moscow.

The murder of Litvinenko "was a chilling crime that also placed others at risk," a spokesman for the British Home Office said by telephone in London, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with British government rules.