UK minister to make first official visit to Russia since Salisbury poisonings

A British minister will next week become the first to visit Russia since the 2018 Salisbury poisonings, as the two countries look to maintain some form of dialogue amid weakened ties following the UK’s move to impose sanctions on six of Vladimir Putin’s aides.

The visit by Wendy Morton, a Foreign Office minister, will last from Monday to Thursday. 

But government officials stressed the trip did not mean a normalisation of UK-Russian relations and was instead the resumption of a once-annual meeting between the UK and Russian deputy foreign minister Vladimir Titov to discuss critical issues.

The meeting used to alternate between London and Moscow but it did not go ahead in 2018 because of the attempted assassination of Sergei Skripal, a former Russian double agent, and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury. The nerve agent novichok was used in the attack, prompting a localised lockdown and the death of a Salisbury resident, Dawn Sturgess. Mr Skripal and his daughter survived. 

A UK-Russia meeting of sorts occurred in 2019, between Mr Titov and then Foreign Office minister Sir Alan Duncan, but only on the sidelines of a conference in Germany.  

It is thought Ms Morton will use the opportunity to talk about issues such as the climate crisis and the more recent novichok attack on Mr Putin’s political opponent, Alexei Navalny. 

At a meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Ms Morton is expected to tell Mr Titov that the UK is yet to see any evidence to suggest anyone but Russia was responsible for the poisoning of Mr Navalny in August. 

Mr Navalny is still recovering in Germany, where he received treatment for the poisoning, and has said he wishes to return to Russia as soon as he is able to. His party’s offices in Moscow were raided last week.

The UK last month moved to impose sanctions on six senior aides to Mr Putin, in line with moves by France and Germany in response to the attack on Mr Navalny. So far, Russia has not responded to Britain’s public display of solidarity with the Russian opposition leader and other EU countries. 

Russian officials yesterday suggested the poisoning could have taken place on the plane that carried Mr Navalny to Germany, though critics said this did not make sense as Mr Navalny was only transported to Berlin once it was already suspected he had been poisoned. 

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, also announced yesterday that Moscow had planned retaliatory sanctions against France and Germany. He failed to disclose if the UK would recieve the same treatment. 

Ms Morton will also meet Mr Putin’s climate change adviser, in preparation for COP26 in 2021, as well as civilian human rights campaigners.

The meeting comes at a time of ongoing political tensions between the UK and Russia. In addition to the Salisbury and Navalny poisonings, Britain has sided against Russia on the Belarus crisis - where Alexander Lukashenko’s disputed claims of election victory have caused huge protests.

The UK has also publicly accused Moscow of conducting cyber attacks against other countries to try to steal their research into coronavirus vaccines and other possible treatments for the pandemic.

Russia announced this week that its Sputnik V Covid vaccine is now 92 per cent effective, days after Pfizer announced its jab was 90 per cent effective in protecting people against Covid.