UK extradition bid foolish - Putin

The Russian president said a decision by British prosecutors to press ahead with a formal extradition request is "PR and politics".

Mr Putin added that the extradition documents lacked evidence and substance connecting Andrei Lugovoy to the murder.

He said: "If the people who sent us this demand do not know that by Russian constitution, Russian citizens cannot be extradited to foreign states, then their competence is in question.

"And if they knew this and still did it, that it was PR and politics. So however you look at this, it is pure foolishness."

The remarks, quoted by the Interfax news agency, were made by Mr Putin before he flew to Germany for the G8 summit.

Prosecutors want to charge Mr Lugovoy with murdering Mr Litvinenko, 43, in London last November.

Mr Litvinenko died from a lethal dose of the rare isotope polonium-210, traces of which were later found at hotels, restaurants and on aeroplanes.

He met Mr Lugovoy on the day he fell ill and later accused Mr Putin of involvement in his murder in a death-bed message.

Mr Litvinenko's widow, Marina, on Sunday dismissed claims that British secret services had a part in the death.