April 14, 2007	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 25, 1428

MOSCOW, April 13: Russia urged Britain on Friday to hand over billionaire Boris Berezovsky for trial after he told a British newspaper he was planning a revolution to topple President Vladimir Putin.

Berezovsky took his long-running battle with the Kremlin to a new level by saying in an interview with the Guardian newspaper that he was fomenting revolution. “We need to use force to change this regime,” he said.

His statement quickly rebounded on Russia’s relations with Britain, already strained by accusations from London-based dissidents including Berezovsky that the Kremlin was behind the poisoning death of ex-Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko.

“The main thing it seems to me is that he has put the British authorities and the British justice system in an awkward position,” Kremlin deputy spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on the Vesti-24 television channel.

“We have heard open calls for the forceful overthrow of power in another state ... from the lips of a person who was given political asylum in a court ruling. Logic dictates that such statements should lead to a review of that decision.”

Russia has for years been trying to extradite Berezovsky from his base in London to face corruption charges at home but has been foiled because of his refugee status. Prosecutor-General Yuri Chaika ordered officials to write again to their British counterparts asking them to extradite Berezovsky, spokeswoman Maria Gridneva told Russian television.

“This is a question for the British authorities. They know perfectly well what this person is up to,” said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Under British law it is the prerogative of the courts to decide whether Berezovsky qualifies for extradition, but a spokesman for the government in London said it would look carefully at Berezovsky’s statements.

“We deplore anyone who uses their residence in the UK as a platform to call for the violent overthrow of a sovereign government,” said the spokesman.—Reuters