As Trump thaws ties, Russia has a new public enemy number one: Britain
World
As Trump thaws ties, Russia has a new public enemy number one: Britain
LONDON (Reuters) - Two British diplomats expelled in a spying row. A blistering statement from Russia's foreign intelligence service calling Britain "a warmonger." And a threat from a top ally of Vladimir Putin to seize UK assets inside Russia.
As the US under Donald Trump seeks to reset ties with Moscow and broker peace between Russia and Ukraine, Britain has been granted the status of Russia's public enemy number one.
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It's a mantle it has held on and off over the past two centuries.
"London today, like on the eve of both World Wars of the last century, is acting as the main global 'warmonger'," Russia's foreign intelligence service said in an unusually charged public statement on Monday. It accused London of trying to derail Trump's efforts to broker peace in Ukraine.
"The time has come to expose them and send a clear message to 'perfidious Albion' and its elites: you will not succeed," the agency, known as the SVR, said.
It did not elaborate on its objections to Britain's behaviour prior to the two World Wars.
While Moscow has singled out Britain for particularly severe opprobium, it has ramped up its rhetoric against the European Union and French President Emmanuel Macron in particular too, whose talk of France's nuclear arsenal as a counterpoint to a perceived Russian threat has angered the Kremlin.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has become Europe's biggest and deadliest conflict since World War Two. It has left hundreds of thousands of dead and injured, displaced millions more, and triggered the sharpest confrontation between Moscow and the West in decades.
For most of the war, Russia lambasted Washington for its role in supplying aid to Kyiv. With Trump in office, that has changed.
Three Russian officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media, said Britain was now regarded as Moscow's main foe, with one fuming that London was "stoking chaos and war" in Ukraine.
Another described Britain as the driving force in the West when it came to galvanising opposition to Russia.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer's talk this month of putting British boots on the ground and planes in the air in Ukraine as part of a potential peacekeeping force has angered senior Russian politicians.
So did his hosting of a meeting of the "coalition of the willing", as well as his in-person and phone lobbying of Trump to support Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has cast Starmer as fuelling tensions at the very moment when Trump was trying to calm them.
British diplomats in Russia say they know what they're up against. Tit-for-tat expulsions have already shrunk the staff at Britain's embassy by at least 10 diplomats since the start of the war. Neither Russia nor Britain has defence attaches in post.
Russia's FSB security service on Monday accused a British diplomat and the spouse of another diplomat of spying and expelled them - allegations London called "baseless."
Britain summoned Russia's ambassador in London on Wednesday and expelled a Russian diplomat and a diplomatic spouse in retaliation.
"It is clear that the Russian state is actively seeking to drive the British Embassy in Moscow towards closure," the British Foreign Office said in a statement on Wednesday.
Russia's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.
Asked about Russian enmity towards London, a spokesperson for the British Foreign Office said it would not engage with "every baseless claim" made by Moscow.
"They started this war, and while they’re busy stoking division, the UK and our allies, including the US, are focused on securing a just and lasting peace in Ukraine. Anything which suggests otherwise is clearly nonsense," the spokesperson said.
