The Australian government has dropped terrorism charges against the Indian doctor arrested there in connection with last month's unsuccessful car bombings in Britain.

The head of the British Embassy's economic section was one of four diplomats told to leave Russia in the tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions that have followed the poisoning of Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that Britain has not so far changed visa issue procedures for Russian officials despite earlier reports, and Russia will follow suit.

The Russian Prosecutor General's Office has not yet received a single document in the Alexander Litvinenko murder case from Britain, a senior investigator said Wednesday.

President Vladimir Putin said Britain's demand that Russia amend its Constitution to extradite a suspect in the murder of Alexander Litvinenko shows the country retains a colonialist mentality.

Escalating tensions between Britain and Russia are threatening to spill over into Moscow's relations with the European Union.

The United States Thursday gave strong support to Britain in its escalating diplomatic dispute with Russia over the Alexander Litvinenko murder case. The State Department says Moscow should comply with Britain's demand for the extradition of a Russian suspect in the case of the murdered former spy.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says relations with Britain will develop normally despite what he called a "minicrisis" between London and Moscow. Putin's comments on July 19 came after Russia announced it would expel four British diplomats in response to Britain's decision earlier this week to send home four Russian diplomats.

Russia has escalated its diplomatic dispute with Britain, expelling four British diplomats and also suspending bilateral cooperation in the struggle against terrorism.

The European Union is urging Russia to cooperate with Britain in a diplomatic dispute over a probe into last year's murder of ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.

Self-exiled Russian businessman Boris Berezovsky has told RFE/RL that he was warned by friends in Moscow that a plot was being prepared to assassinate him in London.

Four British diplomats are to be expelled from Russia in a move mirroring the U.K.'s expulsion of Russian diplomats over Moscow's refusal to extradite a murder suspect, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday.