Moscow, Sep 12: David Cameron would have been a “good KGB agent”, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev today said in a lighter vein after his tough parleys with the visiting British Prime Minister.
“David would have been a good KGB agent, but then he would not have become Prime Minister,” Medvedev said responding to a question asked by a foreign correspondent about reports of KGB's attempt to enroll David Cameron in 1985 during his visit to the Soviet Union.
Cameron is the first British leader to visit Russia in almost last six years since the Alexander Litvinenko poisoning in 2006, after which 10 Downing Street froze its all diplomatic and political contacts with Vladimir Putin, who had refused to extradite alleged killer, a former KGB officer Andrei Lugovoi.
In 2007, the then President Vladimir Putin cited the constitutional constraint, which does not allow the extradition of a Russian citizen to a foreign power. Speaking at a joint press conference in the Kremlin with Medvedev, Cameron dismissed suggestions that the UK had “parked” the issue of the death of Litvinenko for trade relations.
“It remains an issue between Britain and Russia. We haven't changed our position about that, and the Russians haven't changed their position,” Cameron said indicating that Moscow and London have agreed to disagree on the issue, which remained “important” for his country.
Medvedev reiterated the stance once voiced by his predecessor Putin that the Russian Constitution bans the extradition of Russian citizens.
Cameron underscored that as “mature and sensible” countries, Britain and Russia should try and see if they can build a relationship in their mutual interests. Taking a dig at Cameron over his complaint about corruption in Russia as an obstacle for business, Medvedev said: “I won't open a secret that even in UK there is corruption”.
“The corruption exists in this or that degree in all the countries of the world, and we cannot go around and tell them ‘do this or that' for business,” Medvedev said and underscored that combating corruption is domestic goal, which Russia was doing. PTI
