Cameron would have made good KGB spy

2011-09-12 17:02

Moscow - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday said his guest British Prime Minister David Cameron would have made a "good KGB agent" as the two met to mend ties damaged by the 2006 poisoning of a Kremlin critic in London.

"I am sure David would have been a good KGB agent," Medvedev told reporters after talks with Cameron, when asked by a journalist whether he thought his guest would have made a good spy.

"But in that case he would never have become British prime minister," Medvedev said to laughter from the audience consisting of top Russian and British officials and journalists.

Cameron, who has in the past said he believed there was an attempt to recruit him to serve as a spy for Russia, chose not to comment.

The talks between Cameron and Medvedev were the first top-level bilateral contacts since the death from polonium poisoning in London of Alexander Litvinenko, a fierce Vladimir Putin critic, severely damaged bilateral ties.

Putin, Russia's prime minister who is generally considered the country's paramount leader, famously served as a KGB agent in East Germany under the Soviet Union.

The British and Russian prime ministers are set to hold a separate meeting later in the day.

London officials have said this would be the first contact a British minister or diplomat has made with Putin, Medvedev's hawkish mentor and predecessor, since the murder of Litvinenko, who accused the then-Russian president of murder in his deathbed statement.

- AFP