The United Kingdom shares concerns voiced by the United States regarding Moscow's alleged interference in other countries' internal affairs and "the nefarious actions" by Russian President Vladimir Putin, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Wednesday, commenting on US President Joe Biden's remarks about Russia
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th March, 2021) The United Kingdom shares concerns voiced by the United States regarding Moscow's alleged interference in other countries' internal affairs and "the nefarious actions" by Russian President Vladimir Putin, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said on Wednesday, commenting on US President Joe Biden's remarks about Russia.
Biden told ABC news in an interview published on Wednesday that Putin would "pay a price" for alleged interference in the 2020 US presidential vote. The US leader was also asked if he considered the Russian president a "killer" and he replied in the affirmative.
"We certainly share many of those concerns. We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our American friends and we have seen the nefarious actions of president Putin in Russia, in Libya, in Syria, we have seen it on [the] UK soil," Raab said at a virtual talk hosted by the Aspen Institute think tank.
According to the UK official, the international community needs to be "very clear-eyed" about Moscow and respond in a due manner to all its actions.
"We need to apply costs where Russia's behavior breaches all international norms. We need to also be able to incentivize better behavior, a willingness to engage where Russia does improve its behavior. But there [are] not great signs for optimism at the moment," Raab added.
A day prior, US intelligence released a new report alleging that Putin had authorized the Russian government's "influence operations" to undermine then-Democratic candidate Biden during the 2020 election and to exacerbate political divisions in the US. According to media reports, the US may roll out new Russia sanctions over the alleged interference as early as the next week.
The Kremlin, in turn, qualified the report as "absolutely groundless and unsubstantiated," expressing the belief this is just a pretext for introducing new restrictions. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov added that Russia did not interfere in the vote and had nothing to do with campaigns against any candidates. Washington's sanctions policy could further aggravate the bilateral relations, he noted.
