Britain’s demand to extradite Andrei Lugovoi has been the major news in the Russian media over the past few weeks. How much Russians know about this affair and what they think about it was the topic of our latest poll.

The results showed that two-thirds of Russians are aware of the fact that Britain filed a request with the Russian authorities to extradite Mr. Lugovoi (38% are aware and 26% had heard something about this event), 26% learned about Britain’s request from the interviewer, and 11% had difficulty answering the question.

Most respondents approve of Russia’s refusal to extradite Andrei Lugovoi to Britain: 52% believe that the Russian government shouldn’t hand him over to Britain, and only 7% suggested the opposite. The rest were undecided.

Respondents were asked to answer an open-ended question explaining their stance on this issue. One out of four Russians who oppose Mr. Lugovoi’s extradition (13% of the total sample) hold that he should be tried in Russia. About the same number maintain that “every country should protect their own citizens” (12%). Many opponents of the idea to hand Mr. Lugovoi over to the British authorities refer to the Russian law forbidding extradition of Russian citizens to a foreign state (9%). Notably, the same percentage of respondents (9%) propose exchanging Andrei Lugovoi for Boris Berezovsky. Six percent of those interviewed suggest that Mr. Lugovoi’s guilt has not been proven, while others assume that he “acted on someone’s orders” (1%). Some Russians believe that “political intrigue” lies behind Britain’s demands (2%).
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