The United States is not taking sides in the Britain-Russia dispute over the murder last November of former Russian intelligence official Alexander Litvinenko, White House spokesman Tony Snow said Tuesday. “No, we're not taking sides,” Snow said in response to a question from a reporter. British prosecutors on Tuesday demanded the extradition of a Russian businessman to face charges over the assassination of Litvinenko, who was poisoned in London with the highly radioactive isotope polonium 210 and died three weeks later. Russian authorities immediately said they would not hand over Andrei Lugovol-also a former Russian intelligence official-despite London's demands for “full cooperation” over the killing, pushing already strained ties with Moscow to a new low.
