Britain is disappointed over Russia's decision to expel four British diplomats, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Thursday.
"We obviously believe that the decision to expel four embassy staff is completely unjustified," Miliband said in a statement.
"And we will be doing everything to ensure that they and their families are properly looked after," he said.
"We are disappointed that the Russian government should have signaled no new cooperation in the case of the extradition of Mr Andrei Lugovoi for the alleged murder of Alexander Litvinenko," Miliband said.
"We are, however, much heartened that over the last 36 hours across the international community, European countries, the EU as a whole and the United States should have put out such positive statements about the need to defend the integrity of the British judicial system, and that is something that we shall be taking forward with the international community over the next few days and weeks," Miliband added.
Miliband's statement came about an hour after Russia announced its expulsion of four British diplomats.
Also Responding to Russia's decision, the spokesman for British Prime minister Gordon Brown, Michael Ellam, said "We think the action they have taken is completely unjustified and we will continue to take this matter forward with the international community over the next weeks."
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin announced on Thursday that Russia will expel four British diplomats amid the recent row on a spy-poisoning case.
Kamynin said Russia will also stop issuing visas to British officials and halt counter-terrorism cooperation with Britain in response to London's decision to expel four Russian diplomats.
Miliband said on Monday that Britain would expel four diplomats from the Russian embassy in London due to Russia's refusal to extradite a main suspect in the poisoning case, Andrei Lugovoi, who was accused of murdering former KGB agent Litvinenko.
Miliband also said Britain would suspend visa facilitation negotiation with Russia.
Litvinenko died of radioactive poisoning, from Polonium 210, in London on Nov. 23. Experts investigating his death found radiation traces at a dozen locations and on two British Airways airplanes that flew the Moscow-London route.
Lugovoi, a business partner of Litvinenko and also a former KGB agent, met him at a London hotel on Nov. 1. Litvinenko fell ill on that day and died weeks later in a London hospital.
On July 5, Russia's Prosecutor General's Office formally rejected Britain's request for the extradition of Lugovoi.
Russia has said its rejection was based both on a constitutional ban on turning Russian citizens over to foreign countries, and on a European convention that allows signatories to refuse to extradite their nationals.
Source: Xinhua
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