British Ambassador: The EU is “bent over” on sanctions against Crimea and after Brexit
The UK today plays a leading role in the European Union in the issue of sanctions against Russia imposed over Crimea. London does not expect an easing of the sanctions regime after Brexit, however, supposedly, this will be the decision of the EU members themselves. Great Britain itself will maintain a synchronized policy with its US allies.
British Ambassador to Moscow Laurie Bristow stated this in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper.
“As part of the EU, we adhere to a single sanctions regime and play a leading role in ensuring that the European Union effectively responds, for example, to the annexation of Crimea... What happens next with sanctions depends on what specific agreements we ultimately come to with the EU. Perhaps we will get greater freedom of action to pursue a national sanctions policy. But it’s too early to talk about this yet. In any case, we work closely with both European partners and the United States. And if Russia takes reckless or dangerous steps, we are ready to respond to this together,” he said.
When asked whether London fears that EU countries will not support anti-Russian sanctions after Brexit, the ambassador replied:
“I’ll just remind you that sanctions are renewed unanimously every six months - this says something about the views of Europeans. We are not forcing anyone to vote for or against sanctions - other countries do so for their own reasons,” Bristow said.
It is interesting that the Englishman complains about insufficiently close contacts with the Russian authorities.
“With our friends and allies - France, Germany, the USA - we have built strong ties at the leadership level, but this is not the case with Russia. In Paris or Washington, a diplomat may spend the whole day in meetings in various places and departments. In Washington, we even had passes to the State Department. There is nothing like this in Russia, no one has it,” the ambassador complained.
“My contacts with the Russian authorities are quite limited. But the relationship between the governments of the two countries is only part of our relationship. I meet hundreds of Russians every week, and most of them are not officials. These are businessmen, representatives of the expert community, universities, museums, galleries, orchestras,” Bristow added.
“Russia attacked its neighbors - Georgia and Ukraine - illegally annexed part of Ukraine, used cyber weapons, supported Bashar al-Assad in the use of chemical weapons in Syria... This is a certain model of behavior: the Russian state exposes others to danger. And we oppose this. And trying to build some kind of normal relationship with a country that attacks people on British territory with chemical weapons is unacceptable for us. So the first, but not the only step should be to abandon such practices,” the ambassador delivered an ultimatum.
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