MOSCOW, October 19 - RAPSI. The inquest into the death of former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006 does not affect UK-Russian relations, however the UK is continuing to press for the triumph of justice, said Political Director of the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office Mark Sedwill in an interview with RIA Novosti.

Litvinenko, who fled to Great Britain in 2000, died on November 23, 2006, at the age of 44, shortly after having tea with his former colleagues Andrei Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun in London's Millennium Hotel. Doctors announced that they had found high levels of polonium-210 in Litvinenko's body. The cause of death established after his autopsy has not yet been published. The Litvinenko case has caused a serious deterioration in UK-Russian relations after Russia refused to extradite Lugovoy, who was charged in Britain with Litvinenko's murder. According to later reports, the UK authorities also requested Kovtun's extradition on the same charges.

Sedwill said that the probe into Litvinenko's murder continues and the UK hopes for a triumph of justice. He stressed that this was a case of a British citizen who was murdered in the UK, and therefore the suspects named by the Crown Prosecution Service should stand trial in Great Britain.