It is difficult to assess the prospects of Moscow-London relations improvement after the UK parliamentary elections, Russia is ready cooperate to the same extent as its partners are, so everything now depends on the United Kingdom, Sergey Belyaev, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Second European Department, said in an interview with Sputnik
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th November, 2019) It is difficult to assess the prospects of Moscow-London relations improvement after the UK parliamentary elections, Russia is ready cooperate to the same extent as its partners are, so everything now depends on the United Kingdom, Sergey Belyaev, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Second European Department, said in an interview with Sputnik.
"It is difficult to say whether there are prospects of relations improvement. It can be said clearly that, under our foreign policy principle, we are ready to cooperate with foreign partners to the same extent as they are ready to cooperate with us. We do not have any approach, under which we are not ready to or are not willing to deal with anybody. So everything depends on the British, first of all," Belyaev said, when asked if he expected the relations between Moscow and London to become warmer after the UK parliamentary elections, scheduled for December 12.
The diplomat pointed to the UK's groundless anti-Russia hysteria, seen in the country over the recent years.
"Our British colleagues have become authors of a wonderful concept 'highly likely': Russians are to blame for everything, we cannot prove this, but who else can be guilty. Unfortunately, this could be seen under the former prime minister [Theresa May], and this policy has not changed significantly now," Belyaev added.
He stressed that the UK was currently focused on Brexit anyway.
"I think some possibilities are more likely to be linked rather not to the elections but to Brexit, as the British currently do not have enough force and possibility to focus on anything else. It seems that even they do not know yet what Brexit is and how it will be conducted," Belyaev concluded.
The UK's exit from the European Union is currently scheduled for January 31, 2020, after the bloc has agreed to postpone it by three months.
