Revealed: UK's push to strengthen anti-Russia alliance

Patrick Wintour, The Guardian

Image from article, with caption: Vladimir Putin at the Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow.

Excerpt:

James Nixey, the head of the Russia and Eurasia programme at the thinktank Chatham House, said: “It’s hard to persuade even your closest allies to take tangible measures with impact if we’re not prepared to sacrifice some of the Russian investment in our own country and stick to a point of principle. Government statements on this have been either ambiguous or all over the place.” ...

Alicia Kearns, who ran the Foreign Office’s strategic counter-terrorism communications in Syria and Iraq, argues that Russia is seen as nearly unique in its willingness to conceal the truth. ...

For some Baltic diplomats, Putin’s regime now lies so systematically that diplomatic dialogue is close to redundant. Linas Linkevičius, the Lithuanian foreign minister, said: “A lie isn’t an alternative point of view; it is simply a lie and needs to be identified as such. A T-90 tank in Ukraine isn’t just a ‘vehicle’. Propaganda is not a legitimate form of public diplomacy [JB emphasis].”

According to Nixey, “diplomats have been part of the problem. We have known Russia has a fundamental disagreement with the west over the ‘post-cold war order’ for years, stretching back well before Georgia 2008. But diplomats are hard-wired to seek better relations. It is laudable in principle but logically you can’t have better relations with someone from whom you are getting a divorce due to irreconcilable differences.”

Kearns concurs. “There is a reluctance in the Foreign Office to be forceful in our calling out of Russian falsehoods, fearing that it could end or frustrate wider dialogue with Russia,” she said.

“But there has been a big shift in the wake of Ukraine, Syria and Salisbury. A firmer stance does not necessitate an increase in aggression or vitriol, but a recognition that when Russia – or any other nation’s – actions are unacceptable and there is a responsibility to hold them to account, and that by doing so, we can effect change.” ...

For some old hands in the Foreign Office with deep experience of Russia, however, demonising Russia is a disastrous strategy. ...