If any further proof of Andrei Lugovoi's guilt were needed, the lunatic Vladimir Zhirinovksky has stepped forward to provide it. From his crazed nationalist ramblings, it's clear the Kremlin knows it has been caught with its hand in the cookie jar and it's lame constitutional canard that Lugovoi cannot be extradited to Britain for trial has been blown to smithereens. Now, it scrambles like a den of rats for a new warren to hide in. The Moscow Times reports:

Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky on Tuesday said Britain was a nation of cheats and bandits and had no right to seek the handover of Andrei Lugovoi, a State Duma candidate for his party. Lugovoi, a former security services officer, is wanted by British prosecutors on suspicion of killing Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko. He will be a candidate for the LDPR in Duma elections on Dec. 2. Sitting next to Zhirinovsky at a news briefing, Lugovoi disavowed a statement made Monday that he would like to become president, saying: "Vladimir Volfovich [Zhirinovsky] has all the qualities for the job." Minutes later Zhirinovsky -- known for his flamboyant and sometimes violent rhetoric -- flew into a rage when a Western journalist mentioned the murder of Litvinenko. "Britain, you keep the whole world soaked in blood, the whole world will hate you," yelled Zhirinovsky, who is a deputy speaker in the Duma.

Litvinenko died in a London hospital on Nov. 23 after receiving a dose of radioactive polonium-210, a rare and highly toxic isotope. Lugovoi has always said he is innocent. Zhirinovsky said London could not prosecute Lugovoi because Britain itself was providing a safe haven for Kremlin opponents such as tycoon Boris Berezovsky. "You cover cheats, extremists and criminals," he said. "You are all accomplices, all of you are similar bandits and criminals, your whole government, together with your queen," he said, adding that his party was "most loved by ordinary Russians" and would win one-fifth of all seats in the next Duma. He blamed Britain for backing the Bolsheviks during the 1917 revolution, financing Chechen rebels and opening the second front too late during World War II. "Half of your embassy should be thrown out of Moscow," he barked at the reporter representing a U.S. media outlet. "They are not diplomats, all of them are spies. ... You in Britain are good for nothing, you only plundered Europe."

"Britain will disappear under the water one day," he said. "And it will serve you right ... Even your sheep die every day and every hour due to your sickening British policies."