MOSCOW, July 26 (UPI) -- A group of four British diplomats ordered to leave Russia includes the embassy's top trade official in Moscow.
Alexander Levi is believed to be more senior than the other diplomats involved in the tit-for-tat maneuvering. His expulsion raises fears in the British business community about trade relations with Russia, The Times of London reported.
Levi, like the others, is under orders to leave Moscow by Sunday.
The dispute began when the Russian government refused to extradite Andrei Luguvoi, a former KGB agent suspected by Scotland Yard of killing Alexander Litvinenko. Litvinenko, also a former KGB man, died of polonium poisoning in London.
Levi still had some time to run on his Moscow posting, the Times said. Observers had thought that the Russian Foreign Office selected British diplomats who were due for transfers soon, as a hint that the government hoped to return to normal relations.
