We could throw out 80 British diplomats, threatens Kremlin

Vladimir Putin's government reacted with anger after Gordon Brown ordered four of its diplomats, all suspected spies, to leave London.

The Kremlin said it would decide within days whether to throw out more than 80 members of the UK embassy staff in Moscow.

On Monday, the Foreign Secretary announced punitive sanctions following Russia's refusal to hand over the suspected killer of dissident Alexander Litvinenko.

David Miliband said the expulsions, coupled with a suspension of co-operation on issues including a joint visa agreement, showed Britain's anger at the 'horrifying and lingering death' of Mr Litvinenko.

The former KGB officer, who became a British citizen, died last year. He had been poisoned with radioactive polonium 210 slipped into his tea by what MI5 believes was a Kremlin hit-squad. The Crown Prosecution Service named Andrei Lugovoy, a former KGB bodyguard of Mr Putin, as the chief suspect and demanded his extradition. Lugovoy denies murdering Mr Litvinenko.

Britain is braced for Russia's reply to the expulsions. There has been speculation that Moscow could target some of Britain's considerable investments in Russia, putting City interests at risk.

But the Kremlin has kept London guessing. It promised its response would be 'adequate', leading some to hope it will not escalate the crisis further.

In a televised statement, Russian deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko held open the possibility that more than 80 British diplomats could be asked to leave - almost the entire 90-strong Moscow embassy staff.

Russia says its constitution forbids the extradition of its citizens. But experts say Mr Putin would never agree to one his allies being handed over for trial in Britain.

Mr Grushko said: 'We are being punished for observing our own constitution, which is not just unfair and unacceptable, but even contradicts common sense.' He pointed out that if Russia had responded in the same way each time an extradition request from Moscow was turned down by the UK, 'the British Embassy would be short of about 80 diplomats now'.

Russia has 21 outstanding extradition requests lodged with the UK, he claimed. By his calculation, this would mean 84 British diplomats could be asked to leave.

But he indicated that Moscow did not want to disrupt Russia's commercial links with the UK. 'We will be fully taking into consideration the interests of ordinary citizens - people who are involved in business and other such activities - we don't want them to suffer from political actions from Britain.'

He urged the European Union to ignore Britain's calls for solidarity on the issue.

But France has become the first major country to back the British move.

A spokesman for Nicolas Sarkozy's government said: 'We call on Moscow to answer in a constructive manner the demands of British justice, so that the truth can be established and the authors of this crime brought to justice.'

Earlier, Mr Miliband briefed the Cabinet on the expulsions, which the Prime Minister's spokesman described as a 'general diplomatic retaliatory response'. 'We are waiting to see what response comes from Russia,' the spokesman added.

In a statement the Foreign Office said: 'No retaliation on Russia's behalf is justified.'