Russia's Medvedev says open to thaw with Britain

Moscow and London have traded angry rhetoric, expelled eachothers' diplomats and curtailed cooperation between theirintelligence services following Moscow's refusal to extradite asuspect in the 2006 murder in London of Alexander Litvinenko.

Russia also forced the British government's cultural arm toclose two regional offices. Medvedev, speaking in an interviewwith the Financial Times newspaper published on Tuesday, saidLondon and not Moscow had initiated the curbs on relations.

"This, of course, is not very good," Medvedev said,according to a Russian-language transcript of the interviewposted on the Kremlin's Internet site www.kremlin.ru.

"It is not a tragedy. We can restore the whole spectre offull bilateral cooperation, of course, without preliminaryconditions, understanding the independence of each others'positions," he said.

"After my election to the post of president, (PrimeMinister Gordon) .. Brown was one of the first to congratulateme. We are open to the restoration of cooperation in full,"said Medvedev, who will be sworn in as president on May 7.

DOUBLE ACT

A 42-year-old former law professor, Medvedev is taking overfrom his mentor, the outgoing President Vladimir Putin. In anunusual arrangement for a country accustomed to a single,strong leader, Putin is to stay on as Medvedev's primeminister.

Speaking in his first interview since winning a March 2presidential election, Medvedev also touched on a number ofother subjects:

* He denied there was an ulterior motive behind a policeraid last week on the Russian offices of oil major BP and itsRussian joint venture TNK-BP, and the arrest of a TNK-BPemployee. He said the action was part of a criminalinvestigation into industrial espionage.

* He said inflation, which in year-on-year terms is runningat nearly 13 percent, "remains a fairly serious problem for theRussian economy." But he said Russia's prudent financialpolicies would allow it to ride out turbulence on globalmarkets.

* Asked about how he and Putin would work together, he saidtheir roles were clearly laid out in the constitution. "I amsure that this kind of combination, this kind of tandem, willshow its absolute effectiveness," he said.

* He denied the media were subject to restrictions, sayingRussia had a thriving and diverse media market.

* He said he planned to improve respect for the law tocounter what he has called "legal nihilism." An importantelement of this drive would be to raise the status of judgesand enhance their independence from officials.

* Medvedev said he wanted to see reform of statecorporations, which some investors complain have a strangleholdon key sectors of the economy. He said the firms have a role,but that they should hire more independent directors.

(Writing by Christian Lowe; editing by Keith Weir)