Russian embassy not happy with MPs’ new defence group
The Russian Embassy in the UK has hit out at a move by high-profile backbencher Tom Tugendhat to set up a new group to discuss defence in Parliament, describing it as “purely unconstructive”.
The Russian Coordination Group, announced last week, will be chaired by Foreign Affairs Committee head Tugendhat, Tory colleague Nicky Morgan, who heads up the Treasury Select Committee, and Labour’s Yvette Cooper, who chairs the Home Affairs Committee.
The chairs of Defence, Security and Culture committees will also join forces, in order to “expose the malign influence of Russian hostile activity in the UK and push the government to counter it”.
But the news, which was revealed by the Sun last week, has not gone down well at 6 Kensington Palace Gardens.
“Instead of looking for ways to restore the Russo-British relationship or at least keeping channels of communications open, Parliament is letting itself to be drawn into another Russophobic campaign launched by the Conservative government,” the embassy said in a statement.
It described relations between Russia and the UK as having “reached a new low”, following the Salisbury poisoning and the chemical attack in Douma, Syria – both of which the UK government has blamed Russia for, although Moscow has insisted it was not involved.
“Unfortunately, the creation of the new group on a purely unconstructive anti-Russian basis will not help change this situation. To the contrary, it may lead to a further deterioration of our relationships”, the embassy added.
Tugendhat has been active in looking at measures which the government can use in its efforts to respond to acts of aggression from Russia.
Last week he quizzed a number of experts, including former world champion chess player Garry Kasparov, about the need to close loopholes to stop sanctioned individuals and entities from using financial institutions in the City. He has already made representations to Prime Minister Theresa May and foreign secretary Boris Johnson.