Russia and the United Kingdom should leave open channels for communication, says Malcolm Chalmers, Deputy Director-General of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies
During talks held in a round-table format at RIAC “Is there a way out of the Russian-British relations crisis?” he noted that he came to Russia in order to promote the preservation of relations between the two countries.
“Britain considers Russia a very important European country, but the British government should have reacted decisively to what they believed was highly likely to be an attempt to kill Mr. Skripal,” Chalmers said.
In his opinion, the introduction of new sanctions against Russia will not benefit neither Britain, the US, nor the European Union.
“Both the West and Russia are suffering from growing tensions. For a long time since the end of the Cold War, we have built economic ties between our countries, “he said.
The expert said that London and Moscow should develop economic ties. Thus, he believes that it is necessary to maintain contacts with Russia to resolve the crisis in Ukraine and Syria.
He noted that the fact that the British authorities do not provide Russia with evidence on the Salisbury incident does not help the relations between the countries.
Earlier, Russian embassy said that London intentionally blocked attempts by Russian diplomats to contact British experts from the research center “Porton Down”.