‘Different relationship’: May to offer Moscow an olive branch… with conditions
Relations between Russia and the UK could be set to improve. After years of rising tensions, Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to state that she is open to a ‘different relationship’ with Moscow, albeit with stipulations.
May is expected to use her Lord Mayor’s banquet address, Monday, to say Britain will be “open” to friendlier Russia relations only if they cease to “undermine international treaties and international security.”
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“We remain open to a different relationship - one where Russia desists from these attacks that undermine international treaties and international security - and instead acts together with us to fulfil the common responsibilities we share as permanent members of the UN Security Council.
“And we hope that the Russian state chooses to take this path. If it does, we will respond in kind.”
UK-Russia relations reached new lows this year following the Salisbury poisoning of ex-Russian double agent, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia. Both were hospitalised by the attack, but have since recovered.
London also blamed Russia for the death of Dawn Sturgess, who fell ill, along with her partner Charlie Rowley, upon coming into contact with a discarded perfume bottle allegedly containing a nerve agent, in Amesbury.
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For their part, the Kremlin has consistently denied its role in the Salisbury and Amesbury poisonings, urging cooperation between Russian and British investigators on the matter.
While the speech has been billed in parts of the British press as a muted peace offering by May, the PM is expected to hail the prowess of the British intelligence in “degrading Russian intelligence,” in the wake of the poisonings.
“Together with our allies, in response to the attack in Salisbury, we coordinated the largest ever collective expulsion of Russian intelligence officers, fundamentally degrading Russian intelligence capability for years to come,” she is expected to say.
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