At the meeting with the Prime Minister of great Britain Teresa may, held on the sidelines of the G20 summit in the Chinese Hangzhou, the President of Russia Vladimir Putin offered to ease introduced by David Cameron sanctions regime to improve economic relations between Moscow and London. Mei said that at the moment Britain can’t lead with Russia “business as usual”, reports The Times, citing a representative of the British government.
“The Prime Minister has made it clear that we can not business as usual: there are a number of complex and serious issues of concern”, — the interlocutor told The Times.
However, he noted that may have made cooperation with Russia in certain areas in the future, in particular, the security of the citizens. The very meeting that lasted about half an hour, he described as “formal and explicit.
At the meeting, Mei urged Putin to exert pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to organize the work of humanitarian convoys and to stop bombing civilians in Syria, however, according to the representative of the British Cabinet, in the tone of the Russian leader was not a hint of a change of his position on these issues. Russia has repeatedly rejected any accusations of bombing the civilian population in Syria.
Informed about the details of the meeting between Putin and Mei told the press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov. According to him, the Russian leader sent the British premiere of “a very clear and unambiguous signal about the fact that Russia is interested in restoring relations between the two countries and is ready to go that far in this, and so to advance as to be ready the British side”.
Peskov also said that “the British side confirmed its readiness to communicate on issues that are of mutual interest.” These include the representative of the Kremlin noted aviation safety. The press Secretary added, however, that “in the UK has not yet formed a definite political will that there is no alternative to the resumption of dialogue in various fields with our country”, although, according to him, the conversation leaders were “good, constructive and open”.
Before meeting Mei and Putin, which took place on the sidelines of the G20 summit on 4 September, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said that Russia’s relations with the UK are almost frozen. In July 2016, during his first speech to the Parliament may call Russia a real threat. “The threat from countries like Russia and North Korea remains real,” — said the head of the British government.
Mei took office as Prime Minister of great Britain July 13, 2016 after the previous head of government, David Cameron resigned because of the results of the referendum on the country’s withdrawal from the EU (Brexit).
