Relations between London and Moscow were rocked again yesterday when the Russian ambassador was summoned to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to explain why two of the country's bombers had flown unannounced across the English Channel. The long-range nuclear-capable aircraft flew south of Bournemouth on Tuesday, forcing British Typhoons to scramble from their bases in Scotland and Lincolnshire. The manoeuvre took place on the same day that a public inquiry into the poisoning of the former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko began an investigation that has irritated the Kremlin.
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