you'd think the russians would be more important about maintaining good diplomatic relations with the UK and the way the world percieves it as opposed to worry about some sort of shadowy group hitting back at it, they do deal with chechen rebels after all....

I'm not saying the russians have done it and i read today that russian law dictates they do not extradite suspects to other countries (for some reason) but all that aside, the way they are conducting themselves during an operation where they should be co operating as much as possible eg. allowing special case for extradition (as is not uncommon), letting the british investigatgors interview suspects instead of their own guys and letting them talk to this jailed dissident who claims to have warned litivenko that he was in danger previously.

again what you have to remember is that the cold war ended less than 20 years ago, alot of people running the show woul dhave been in the KGB, Stassi etc... so it's not too far fetched to imagine that they'd still be willing and capable to use underhand tactics to deal with "problems" I mean i have no doubt that the UK, US et al would have no qualms about silencing people who threatened to severely undermine their regime.