Moscow, 21 August: The majority of Russians are opposed to introducing changes to the Russian Constitution which would enable our countrymen to be extradited to foreign tribunals, and are against the extradition of Russian businessman Andrey Lugovoy, who is suspected by the British authorities of killing former Russian special services officer Aleksandr Litvinenko.

Only a tenth of the Russians surveyed in July by sociologists were in favour of Lugovoy's extradition to Great Britain, seven per cent of whom believed it should be done in order to achieve justice, and three per cent [believing it was necessary] to preserve good relations with Western countries.

Among those opposing Lugovoy's extradition to London 47 per cent justify their stand by saying it goes against our Constitution, and 27 per cent say that his guilt has not been proven, and that he could be simply "condemned" in England, the Russia-wide survey, which was held in 153 towns and villages in 46 of the country's regions, territories and republics, showed. The results of the survey were received by Interfax today.

According to VTsIOM [All-Russia Centre for Research into Public Opinion] data, the majority of respondents (62 per cent against 20 per cent) consider that Russia should not make changes to its Constitution to enable the extradition of our countrymen suspected of committing crimes in other countries to foreign tribunals. Most representatives of all generations of Russians are unanimous in this opinion (60 to 64 per cent), sociologists note.

Furthermore, two thirds of respondents (63 per cent) describe Great Britain's proposal to make changes to the Russian Constitution as unacceptable interference in Russia's internal affairs. Three times fewer respondents (23 per cent) see the proposal as an understandable wish on the part of another state to complete the investigation of a crime committed on its territory.

According to the sociologists' data, Great Britain's proposal was met with more understanding in medium-sized Russian towns (31 per cent) than in small towns and villages (23 to 25 per cent), and especially in Moscow, St Petersburg and other large towns (13 to 14 per cent).