David Miliband, the U.K. foreign secretary, is scheduled to address parliament this afternoon to allegedly propose "tough" measures against Russia in what could possibly become the most serious major diplomatic standoff between the two countries in recent years.
The Financial Times Monday cited a well-placed ministerial source as saying the British response would be "heavy" and might include the expulsion of several Russian diplomats for the first time since 1996.
"The danger for the U.K. is that expulsions may trigger a "tit-for-tat" response by Moscow, as has often happened in similar disputes," the paper said.
Andrei Lugovoi, a former security officer, was accused by the Crown Prosecution Service on May 22 of murdering Litvinenko, who fled to the U.K. in 2000 claiming his life was in danger in Russia.
Russia considers the Alexander Litvinenko murder case a purely criminal matter that should not be politicized and involve the U.K. Foreign Office.
London has refused Moscow's alternative offer to try Lugovoi in Russia. Downing Street earlier said it "did not have full confidence" that the trial "would meet the standards of impartiality and fairness we would deem necessary."
Litvinenko died last November, aged 44, three weeks after being poisoned at London's Millennium Hotel, presumably with radioactive Polonium-210, weeks after receiving British citizenship. U.K. authorities have yet to present his official death certificate.
Lugovoi, who met with Litvinenko on the day of his poisoning, has denied responsibility and claimed in May that he had evidence linking Britain's MI6 to the murder of Litvinenko and his employer, fugitive Russian tycoon and Putin critic Boris Berezovsky, who he said were MI6 agents.
