Swordsmyth
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The UK and Russia are examining the scope for a thaw in relations, including the possibility of a meeting between the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and Theresa May at the G20 leaders’ summit in Japan at the end of this month.
If a meeting were to go ahead it would be the first encounter at this level since the poisoning in Salisbury of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in March last year – an episode that led to 23 Russian diplomats being expelled by the UK followed by the expulsion of a similar number of British diplomats from Russia.
The loss of the quality of the expelled British diplomats has severely damaged Britain’s capacity to analyse Russia from inside the country. Moscow also closed the British Council offices and the UK’s diplomatic outpost in St Petersburg.
No meeting between the two leaders would go ahead unless both sides felt certain it would be productive, and a common agenda is achievable. There is also a question of whether Putin would prefer to try to turn a new page with the UK with a new prime minister.
Boris Johnson, the Conservative leadership frontrunner, was sharply critical of Russia’s actions in Syria as foreign secretary, but before the poisoning had travelled to Moscow in December 2017 to meet the long-serving Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.
The G20 summit, in Osaka on 28-29 June, is likely to be May’s last international outing as prime minister. Putin briefly approached May at the last G20 in Argentina in November.
It is thought to be unrealistic to expect Russia to accept responsibility for the Skripal episode, or allow the two GRU agents to be extradited for trial in the UK.
The Foreign Office, and intelligence agencies, would have to judge whether some kind of acknowledgement that such episodes should not happen, or ever be repeated, the maximum likely to be offered, is sufficient for relations to be taken out of the deep freeze. Britain would need certainty that Russia had drawn the right conclusions from the episode.
More at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-consider-may-putin-meeting-to-thaw-relations
If a meeting were to go ahead it would be the first encounter at this level since the poisoning in Salisbury of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in March last year – an episode that led to 23 Russian diplomats being expelled by the UK followed by the expulsion of a similar number of British diplomats from Russia.
The loss of the quality of the expelled British diplomats has severely damaged Britain’s capacity to analyse Russia from inside the country. Moscow also closed the British Council offices and the UK’s diplomatic outpost in St Petersburg.
No meeting between the two leaders would go ahead unless both sides felt certain it would be productive, and a common agenda is achievable. There is also a question of whether Putin would prefer to try to turn a new page with the UK with a new prime minister.
Boris Johnson, the Conservative leadership frontrunner, was sharply critical of Russia’s actions in Syria as foreign secretary, but before the poisoning had travelled to Moscow in December 2017 to meet the long-serving Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.
The G20 summit, in Osaka on 28-29 June, is likely to be May’s last international outing as prime minister. Putin briefly approached May at the last G20 in Argentina in November.
It is thought to be unrealistic to expect Russia to accept responsibility for the Skripal episode, or allow the two GRU agents to be extradited for trial in the UK.
The Foreign Office, and intelligence agencies, would have to judge whether some kind of acknowledgement that such episodes should not happen, or ever be repeated, the maximum likely to be offered, is sufficient for relations to be taken out of the deep freeze. Britain would need certainty that Russia had drawn the right conclusions from the episode.
More at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...-consider-may-putin-meeting-to-thaw-relations
