MOSCOW, May 28 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Foreign Ministry confirmed Monday it had received a request from the British authorities to extradite Russian businessman Andrei Lugovoi in connection with the murder of ex-FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko.
"The documents have been received and passed on to the General Prosecutor's Office," the ministry said.
British prosecutors said last Friday they had filed a request for the extradition of Andrei Lugovoi with the Home Office, to be forwarded to Russian authorities.
Lugovoi has denied any role in the murder of Litvinenko, who received U.K. citizenship a few weeks before his fatal radioactive poisoning last November, saying the charges were political.
The British extradition request was made under the European Convention on Extradition and contains a warrant for the arrest of Lugovoi and a detailed summary of the evidence in the case.
Citing the Russian Constitution, Russia's top prosecutor, Yury Chaika, said last week that Lugovoi would not be extradited to Britain but would stand trial in Russia if his complicity were to be substantiated.
"If our experts find British suspicions with regard to Lugovoi credible, he will be tried in a Russian court of law," he said. "But I repeat, we will not extradite a Russian national."
