MOSCOW, May 30 (UPI) -- Russia has ruled out swapping a homicide suspect with Britain in exchange for an exiled Russian wanted on fraud and corruption charges.
Russia is demanding the return of billionaire Boris Berezovsky from Britain, which granted him asylum in 2001, while Britain wants Andrei Lugovoi, suspected of poisoning former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London last November with radioactive polonium-210.
A spokesman for Russia's Prosecutor General's office Wednesday said a swap was out of the question, the Novosti news agency reported.
"The Prosecutor General's Office is not even considering this issue, because such an action is impossible from the viewpoint of Russian laws, primarily the Constitution, which states that a Russian national cannot be extradited to another state," the unidentified spokesman said.
