In a radio interview, the suspect, Andrei Lugovoi, said he was prepared to face British prosecutors in Russia but would not leave his country for fear he could be arrested at the behest of Britain..
Lugovoi's interview with Ekho Moskvy radio came a day after the latest escalation in the standoff over the death in London last November of Litvinenko, a former KGB officer who had become a critic of the Kremlin. On Thursday, Russia decided to expel four diplomats, stop issuing visas for British officials and halt counterterrorism cooperation.
Those moves followed Britain's announcement Monday that it was expelling four Russian diplomats, restricting visas issued to Russian government officials and reviewing interaction on a range of issues, in what it said was a necessary response to Moscow's refusal to cooperate.
Echoing remarks by Russian officials in less diplomatic language, Lugovoi called British accusations of a lack of cooperation "a cynical and impudent lie." He asserted that the British authorities, short of evidence, deliberately provoked a dispute in order to hide behind claims of Russian recalcitrance.
"Official London's logic was very simple," Lugovoi said.
"I think that they have no direct proof or evidence," he said, suggesting that because of the "huge resonance" of Litvinenko's killing, the British authorities understood that "they had to somehow respond to this case" to avoid embarrassment.
As a result, he said, the British authorities took steps to ensure that they would not have to prove his guilt. Those steps, he added, included requesting his extradition despite Russia's constitutional ban on handing over its citizens.
World News 
