Relations 1553–1792 explains his discoveries to
Henry VII of England. Caboto, together with
John Dee, helped with the preparations for the expedition led by
Hugh Willoughby und
Richard Chancellor, they hoped to find a
northeast sea route to
China, he became governor of the
Muscovy Company , Ivan Davydov, Ivan Afanasyevich Zhelyabuzhsky, Andrey Forot (translator). Unknown English painter, 1662. and the residence of English ambassadors in the 17th century The
Kingdom of England and
Tsardom of Russia established relations in 1553 when English navigator
Richard Chancellor arrived at a port that later became
Arkhangelsk (Archangel) in the
White Sea – at which time
Mary I ruled England and
Ivan the Terrible ruled Russia. He returned to England and was sent back to Russia in 1555, the same year the
Muscovy Company was established. Tsar Ivan IV of Russia and Queen Elizabeth I of England maintained diplomatic relations in the late 16th century through intermediaries such as the English merchant and diplomat
Anthony Jenkinson. In the late 1570s, Ivan IV sent ambassadors to England with a proposal of marriage to Elizabeth herself. This was a strategic move, likely aimed at securing an alliance with England, which was a rising maritime power. For Ivan, such an alliance could have provided a counterbalance to the influence of other European powers. Elizabeth, known for her diplomatic shrewdness, did not outright reject the proposal but responded with diplomatic politeness, avoiding a direct refusal while also not seriously entertaining the proposal. The marriage never materialized, and the correspondence between Ivan and Elizabeth continued for some time. The Muscovy Company held a monopoly over trade between England and Russia until 1698.
Tsar Alexei was outraged by the
Execution of Charles I of England in 1649, and expelled all English traders and residents from Russia in retaliation. In 1697–1698 during the
Grand Embassy of Peter I the Russian tsar visited England for three months. He improved relations and learned the best new technology especially regarding ships and navigation. in the
Great Game, 1878 The
Kingdom of Great Britain (1707–1800) and later the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (1801–1922) had increasingly important ties with the
Russian Empire (1721–1917), after Tsar Peter I brought Russia into European affairs and declared himself an emperor. From the 1720s Peter invited British engineers to Saint Petersburg, leading to the establishment of a small but commercially influential
Anglo-Russian expatriate merchant community from 1730 to 1921. During the series of general European wars of the 18th century, the two empires found themselves as sometime allies and sometime enemies. The two states fought on the same side during
War of the Austrian Succession (1740–48), but on opposite sides during
Seven Years' War (1756–63), although did not at any time engage in the field.
Ochakov issue Prime Minister
William Pitt the Younger was alarmed at
Russian expansion in Crimea in the 1780s at the expense of his
Ottoman ally. He tried to get Parliamentary support for reversing it. In peace talks with the Ottomans, Russia refused to return the key
Ochakov fortress. Pitt wanted to threaten military retaliation. However, Russia's ambassador
Semyon Vorontsov organised Pitt's enemies and launched a public opinion campaign. Pitt won the vote so narrowly that he gave up and Vorontsov secured a renewal of the commercial treaty between Britain and Russia.
Napoleonic Wars: 1792–1817 The outbreak of the
French Revolution and its
attendant wars temporarily united constitutionalist Britain and autocratic Russia in an ideological alliance against
French republicanism. Britain and Russia attempted to halt the French but the failure of their
joint invasion of the Netherlands in 1799 precipitated a change in attitudes. Britain created
Malta Protectorate in 1800, while the emperor
Paul I of Russia was
Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller. That led to the never-executed
Indian March of Paul, which was a secret project of a planned allied Russo-French expedition against the
British possessions in India. In 1805 both countries again attempted to combine operations with British expeditions to North Germany and Southern Italy in concert with Russian expeditionary corps were intended to create diversions in favour of Austria. However, several spectacular French victories in central Europe ended the
Third Coalition. Following the heavy Russian defeat at
Friedland, Russia was obliged to enter Napoleon's
Continental System, barring all trade with Britain. Subsequently, both countries entered into a state of limited war, the
Anglo-Russian War (1807–1812), although neither side actively prosecuted operations against each other. In 1812 Britain and Russia once again became allies against
Napoleon in the
Napoleonic Wars. The United Kingdom gave financial and material support to Russia during the French invasion in 1812, following which both countries pledged to keep 150,000 men in the field until Napoleon had been totally defeated. They both played major cooperative roles at the
Congress of Vienna in 1814–1815 establishing a twenty-year alliance to guarantee European peace.
Eastern Question, Great Game, Russophobia From 1820 to 1907, geopolitical disputes led to a gradual deterioration in Anglo-Russian relations. Popular sentiment in Britain turned increasingly hostile to Russia, with a high degree of anxiety for the safety of
British rule in India. The result was a long-standing rivalry in
Central Asia. In addition, there was a growing concern that Russia would destabilise Eastern Europe by its attacks on the faltering
Ottoman Empire. This fear was known as the
Eastern Question. Russia was especially interested in getting a warm water port that would enable its navy. Getting access out of the Black Sea into the Mediterranean was a goal, which meant access through the Straits controlled by the Ottomans. Both intervened in the
Greek War of Independence (1821–1829), eventually forcing the
London peace treaty on the belligerents. The events heightened British
Russophobia. In 1851 the
Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations held in London's
Crystal Palace, including over 100,000 exhibits from forty nations. It was the world's first international exposition. Russia took the opportunity to dispel Russophobia in Britain by refuting stereotypes of Russia as a backward, militaristic repressive tyranny. Its sumptuous exhibits of luxury products and large 'objets d'art' with little in the way of advanced technology, however, did little to change its reputation. Britain considered its navy too weak to worry about, but saw its large army as a major threat. The Russian pressures on the Ottoman Empire continued, leaving Britain and France to ally with the Ottomans and push back against Russia in the
Crimean War (1853–1856). Russophobia was an element in generating popular support in Britain for the far-off conflict. Public opinion in Britain, especially among
Whigs, supported Polish revolutionaries who were resisting
Russian rule in Poland, after the
November Uprising of 1830. The British government watched nervously as
Saint Petersburg suppressed the subsequent
Polish revolts in the early 1860s, yet refused to intervene. London hosted the first Russian-language censorship-free periodicals — , Golosa iz Rossii, and
Kolokol ("The Bell") — were published by
Alexander Herzen and
Nikolai Ogaryov in 1855–1865, which were of exceptional influence on Russian liberal intellectuals in the first several years of publication. The periodicals were published by the
Free Russian Press set up by Herzen in 1853, on the eve of the Crimean War, financed by the funds Herzen had managed to expatriate from Russia with the help of his bankers, the Paris branch of the
Rothschild family.
Hostile images and growing tensions Russia's defeat in the Crimean War had been widely perceived by Russians as a humiliation and sharpened their desire for revenge. Tensions between the governments of Russia and Britain grew during the mid-century period. Since 1815 there had been an ideological cold war between reactionary Russia and liberal Britain. The Russians helped
Austria brutally suppress the liberal
Hungarian revolt during the
Revolutions of 1848–49 to the dismay of the British. Russian leaders felt their nation's leniency in the 1820s allowed liberalism to spread in the West. They deplored the liberal
revolutions of 1830 in
France,
Belgium, central Europe; worst of all was the anti-Russian revolt that had to be crushed in Poland. New strategic and economic competition heightened tensions in the late 1850s, as the British moved into Asian markets. Russia's suppression of tribal revolts in the Caucasian region released troops for campaigns to expand Russian influence in central Asia, which the British interpreted as a long-term threat to the
British Empire in India. Beginning from the early 19th century, depictions of Russia in the British media, largely drawing on the reports of British travel writers and newspaper correspondents, frequently presented a "distorted picture" of the country; scholar Iwona Sawkowicz argues that this was due to the "brief visits" of these writers and correspondents, many of whom did not speak
Russian and were "looking mostly for cultural differences." These depictions had the effect of increasing Russophobia in Britain despite growing economic and political ties between the two countries. In 1874, tension lessened as
Queen Victoria's second son
Prince Alfred married
Tsar Alexander II's only daughter
Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, followed by a cordial state visit by the tsar. The goodwill lasted no more than three years, when structural forces again pushed the two nations to the verge of war. and Tsar
Nicholas II of Russia,
Balmoral Castle in Scotland, 1896
Panjdeh incident 1885 Anglo-Russian rivalries grew steadily over Central Asia during the so-called "
Great Game" of the late 19th century. Russia desired warm-water ports on the
Indian Ocean while Britain wanted to prevent Russian troops from gaining a potential invasion route to
India. In 1885 Russia annexed part of
Afghanistan in the
Panjdeh incident, which caused a war scare. After nearly completing the
Russian conquest of Central Asia (
Russian Turkestan) the Russians captured an Afghan border fort. Seeing a threat to India, Britain came close to threatening war but both sides backed down and the matter was settled by diplomacy. The effect was to stop further Russian expansion in Asia, except for the
Pamir Mountains, and to define the north-western border of Afghanistan. However, Russia's foreign minister
Nikolay Girs and his ambassador to London
Baron de Staal in 1887 set up a buffer zone in Central Asia. Russian diplomacy thereby won grudging British acceptance of its expansionism.
Far East, 1860–1917 Although Britain had serious disagreements with Russia regarding Russia's threat to the Ottoman Empire, and perhaps even to India, tensions were much lower in the
Far East. London tried to maintain friendly relations in the 1860–1917 period and did reach a number of accommodations with Russia in
northeastern Asia. Both nations were expanding in that direction. Russia built the
Trans-Siberian Railway in the 1890s, and the British were expanding their large-scale commercial activities in
China using
Hong Kong, and the
treaty ports of China. Russia sought a year-round port south of its main base in
Vladivostok. The key ingredient was that both nations were more fearful of Japanese plans than they were of each other; they both saw the need to collaborate. They cooperated with each other (and France) in forcing
Japan to disgorge some of its gains after it won the
First Sino-Japanese War of 1894. Russia increasingly became a protector of China against Japanese intentions. The
Open Door policy promoted by the United States and Britain was designed to allow all nations on an equal footing to trade with China and was accepted by Russia. All the major powers collaborated in the
Eight-Nation Alliance defending their diplomats during the
Boxer Rebellion. Following the
assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881, exiles from the radical
Narodnaya Volya party and other opponents of Tsarism found their way to Britain.
Sergei Stepniak and
Felix Volkhovsky set up the Russian Free Press Fund, along with a journal, Free Russia, to generate support for reforms to, and abolition of, Russian autocracy. They were supported by liberal, nonconformist and left-wing Britons in the Society of Friends of Russian Freedom. There was also considerable support for victims of the Russian famine of 1891–2 and the Jewish and Christian victims of Tsarist persecution.
Early 20th century There was cooperation in Asia, however, as Britain and Russia joined many others to protect their interests in China during the
Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901). Britain was an ally of Japan after 1902, but remained strictly neutral and did not participate in the
Russo-Japanese War of 1904–5. However, there was a brief war scare in the
Dogger Bank incident in October 1905 when the
Imperial Russian Navy's Baltic Fleet, headed to the
Pacific Ocean to fight the
Imperial Japanese Navy, mistakenly engaged a number of British fishing vessels in the
North Sea fog. The Russians thought they were Japanese torpedo boats, and sank one, killing three fishermen. The British public was angry but Russia apologised and damages were levied through arbitration. of Russia (left) and his cousin Prince George (later
George V of the United Kingdom) with their sons, the future
Edward VIII on the left and
Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia on the right; 1909 Diplomacy became delicate in the early 20th century. Russia was troubled by the
Entente Cordiale between Great Britain and France signed in 1904. Russia and France already had a mutual defense agreement that said France was obliged to threaten Britain with an attack if Britain declared war on Russia, while Russia was to concentrate more than 300,000 troops on the Afghan border for an incursion into India in the event that Britain attacked France. The solution was to bring Russia into the British-French alliance. The
Anglo-Russian Entente and the
Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907 made both countries part of the
Triple Entente. The Convention ended the long-standing rivalry in central Asia, and then enabled the two countries to outflank the Germans, who were threatening to connect
Berlin to
Baghdad with a
new railroad that would probably align the Turkish Empire with Germany. The Convention ended the long dispute over
Persia. Britain promised to stay out of the northern half, while Russia recognised southern Persia as part of the British sphere of influence. Russia also promised to stay out of Tibet and Afghanistan. In exchange London extended loans and some political support. The Convention led to the formation of the
Triple Entente.
Allies, 1907–1917 Both countries were then part of the subsequent
alliance against the
Central Powers in
World War I. In the summer of 1914,
Austria-Hungary attacked
Serbia, Russia promised to help Serbia, Germany promised to help Austria, and war broke out between Russia and Germany. France supported Russia. Under Foreign Minister
Sir Edward Gray Britain felt its national interest would be badly hurt if Germany conquered
Belgium and France. It was neutral until
Germany suddenly invaded Belgium and France. Britain declared war becoming an ally of France and Russia against Germany and Austria. The alliance lasted when the February 1917 Revolution in Russia overthrew
Tsar Nicholas II and the
Russian monarchy. However When the Bolsheviks under Lenin took power in November, they made peace with Germany—the
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was in effect a surrender with massive loss of territory. Russia ended all diplomatic and trade relations with Britain, and repudiated all debts to London and Paris. The British supported the
anti-Bolshevik forces during the
Russian Civil War, but they lost, and Britain restored trade relations in 1921.
Soviet Union–United Kingdom relations Interwar period In 1918, with the
German Army advancing toward Moscow in
Operation Faustschlag, the
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic under Lenin made many concessions to the German Empire in return for peace. The Allies felt betrayed by the
Treaty of Brest Litovsk signed on 3 March 1918. Towards the
end of World War I, Britain began to send troops to Russia to participate in the
Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War which lasted up to 1925, aiming to topple the newly-formed socialist government the Bolsheviks had created. As late as 1920, Grigory Zinoviev called for a "holy war" against
British imperialism at a rally in
Baku. (left) with
White Russian commander General
Yevgeny Miller during the
North Russia intervention in 1919. Following the withdrawal of British troops from Russia, negotiations for trade began, and on 16 March 1921, the
Anglo-Soviet Trade Agreement was concluded between the two countries. Lenin's
New Economic Policy downplayed socialism and emphasised business dealings with capitalist countries, in an effort to restart the sluggish
Russian economy. Britain was the first country to accept Lenin's offer of a trade agreement. It ended the British blockade, and Russian ports were opened to British ships. Both sides agreed to refrain from hostile propaganda. It amounted to de facto diplomatic recognition and opened a period of extensive trade. Britain formally recognised the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR or Soviet Union, 1922–1991) on 1 February 1924. However, Anglo-Soviet relations were still marked by distrust and contention, culminating in a diplomatic break in 1927. Diplomatic relations between the two countries were severed at the end of May 1927 after a police raid on the
All Russian Co-operative Society whereafter
Conservative British prime minister
Stanley Baldwin presented the
House of Commons with deciphered Soviet telegrams that proved Soviet espionage activities. The fallout from this incident contributed to the
Soviet war scare of 1927, as it led to a domestic Soviet fear of an invasion, although the fear is generally considered by historians to have been created by Stalin to use against his opponents in the
Left Opposition. After the
1929 general election, the incoming
Labour government of
Ramsay MacDonald successfully established permanent diplomatic relations.
Second World War In 1938, Britain and France negotiated the
Munich Agreement with
Nazi Germany. Stalin opposed the pact and refused to recognise the German annexation of the
Czechoslovak Sudetenland.
German-Soviet Non-aggression Pact The USSR and Germany signed the
Non-aggression Pact in late August 1939, which promised the Soviets control of about half of Eastern Europe, and removed the risk to Germany of a
two-front war.
Germany invaded Poland on 1 September, and the
Soviets followed sixteen days later. Many members of the
Communist Party in Britain and sympathisers were outraged and quit. Those who remained strove to undermine the British war effort and campaigned for what the party called a 'people's peace', i.e. a negotiated settlement with Hitler. Britain, along with France, declared war on Germany, but not the USSR. The British people were sympathetic to Finland in its
Winter War against the USSR. The USSR furthermore supplied oil to the Germans which Hitler's
Luftwaffe needed in its
Blitz against Britain in 1940.
Anglo-Soviet alliance ,
Franklin D. Roosevelt and
Winston Churchill on the verandah of the Soviet Embassy in
Tehran during the
Tehran Conference, 1943 and the Soviet General
Georgy Zhukov at the
Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany, 12 July 1945 In June 1941, Germany launched
Operation Barbarossa, attacking the USSR. Britain and the USSR agreed an alliance the following month with the
Anglo-Soviet Agreement. The
Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in August overthrew
Reza Shah and secured the oil fields in
Iran from falling into
Axis hands. The
Arctic convoys transported supplies between Britain and the USSR during the war. Britain was quick to provide limited
materiel aid to the Soviet Union – including tanks and aircraft – via these convoys in order to try to keep her new ally in the war against Germany and her allies. One major conduit for supplies was through Iran. The two nations agreed on a joint occupation of Iran, to neutralise German influence. After the war, there were disputes about the Soviet delayed departure from Iran, and speculation that it planned to set up a puppet state along its border. That problem was resolved completely in 1946. The Soviet Union joined the
Second Inter-Allied Meeting in London in September. The USSR thereafter became one of the "Big Three"
Allies of World War II along with Britain and, from December, the United States, fighting against the
Axis powers. A twenty-year mutual assistance agreement, the
Anglo-Soviet Treaty was signed in May 1942, reasserting the
military alliance until the end of the war and formalizing a
political alliance between the
Soviet Union and the
British Empire for 20 years. In August 1942,
Winston Churchill, accompanied by American
W. Averell Harriman,
went to Moscow and met Stalin for the first time. The British were nervous that Stalin and Hitler might make separate peace terms; Stalin insisted that would not happen. Churchill explained how Arctic convoys bringing munitions to Russia had been intercepted by the Germans; there was a delay now so that future convoys would be better protected. He apologetically explained there would be no second front this year—no British-American invasion of France—which Stalin had been urgently requesting for months. The will was there, said Churchill, but there was not enough American troops, not enough tanks, not enough shipping, not enough air superiority. Instead the British, and soon the Americans, would step up
bombing of German cities and railways. Furthermore, there would be "
Operation Torch" in November. It would be a major Anglo-American invasion of North Africa, which would set the stage for an
invasion of Italy and perhaps open the
Mediterranean for munitions shipments to Russia through the
Black Sea. The talks started out on a very sour note but after many hours of informal conversations, the two men understood each other and knew they could cooperate smoothly.
Polish boundaries Stalin was adamant about British support for new boundaries for Poland, and Britain went along. They agreed that after victory Poland's boundaries would be moved westward, so that the USSR took over lands in the east while Poland gained lands in the west that had been under German control. east of the Curzon Line annexed by the Soviet Union after the war. They agreed on the "
Curzon Line" as the boundary between Poland and the Soviet Union) and the
Oder-Neisse line would become the new boundary between Germany and Poland. The proposed changes angered the
Polish government in exile in London, which did not want to lose control over its minorities. Churchill was convinced that the only way to alleviate tensions between the two populations was the transfer of people, to match the national borders. As he told
Parliament on 15 December 1944, "Expulsion is the method which... will be the most satisfactory and lasting. There will be no mixture of populations to cause endless trouble.... A clean sweep will be made."
Postwar plans with
Joseph Stalin in 1945. The U.S. and Britain each approached Moscow in its own way; there was little coordination. Churchill wanted specific, pragmatic deals, typified by the percentage arrangement. Roosevelt's highest priority was to have the Soviets eagerly and energetically participate in the new
United Nations, and he also wanted them to enter the
war against Japan. In October 1944, Churchill and foreign minister
Anthony Eden met Stalin and his foreign minister
Vyacheslav Molotov in Moscow. They discussed who would control what in the rest of postwar Eastern Europe. The Americans were not present, were not given shares, and were not fully informed. After lengthy bargaining the two sides settled on a
long-term plan for the division of the region, the plan was to give 90% of the influence in
Greece to Britain and 90% in
Romania to Russia. Russia gained an 80%/20% division in
Bulgaria and
Hungary. There was a 50/50 division in
Yugoslavia.
Cold War and beyond Following
the end of the Second World War, relations between the
Soviet Bloc and the
Western Bloc deteriorated quickly. Former British prime minister Churchill claimed that the Soviet occupation of
Eastern Europe after World War II amounted to 'an
iron curtain has descended across the continent.' Relations were generally tense during the ensuing
Cold War, typified by
spying and other covert activities. The British and American
Venona Project was established in 1942 for
cryptanalysis of messages sent by
Soviet intelligence. Soviet spies were later discovered in Britain, such as
Kim Philby and the
Cambridge Five spy ring, which was operating in England until 1963. The Soviet spy agency, the
KGB, was suspected of the murder of
Georgi Markov in London in 1978. A High ranking KGB official,
Oleg Gordievsky, defected to London in 1985. British prime minister
Margaret Thatcher pursued a strong
anti-communist policy in concert with
Ronald Reagan during the 1980s, in contrast with the
détente policy of the 1970s. During the
Soviet–Afghan War the British conducted
covert military support as well as sending arms and supplies to the
Afghan Mujahideen. and
Margaret Thatcher at the Soviet Embassy in London, 1 April 1989 Relations improved considerably after
Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in the Soviet Union in 1985 and launched
perestroika. They remained relatively warm after the
collapse of the USSR in 1991 – with Russia taking over the international obligations and status from the demised superpower. In October 1994, Queen Elizabeth II
made a state visit to Russia, the first time a ruling British monarch had set foot on Russian soil.
21st century 2000s and
Vladimir Putin, 2000 with
Queen Elizabeth II and
Prince Philip on a state visit, 2003 Relations between the countries began to grow tense again shortly after
Vladimir Putin was elected as
President of the Russian Federation in 2000, with the Kremlin pursuing a more assertive
foreign policy and imposing more controls domestically. The major irritant in the early-2000s was the UK's refusal to extradite
Russian citizens, self-exiled businessman
Boris Berezovsky and
Chechen separatist leader
Akhmed Zakayev, whom the UK granted
political asylum. In late 2006, former
FSB officer
Alexander Litvinenko was
poisoned in
London by radioactive metalloid,
Polonium-210 and died three weeks later. The UK requested the extradition of
Andrei Lugovoy from Russia to face charges over Litvinenko's death. Russia refused, stating their
constitution does not allow extradition of their citizens to foreign countries. As a result of this, the United Kingdom expelled four Russian diplomats, shortly followed by Russia expelling four British diplomats. The Litvinenko affair remains a major irritant in British-Russian relations. In the aftermath of the Litvinenko poisoning, the UK's special security service agencies,
MI5 and
MI6 severed their relations, and co-operation with Russia's special security agency the
FSB. In July 2007, the
Crown Prosecution Service announced that
Boris Berezovsky would not face charges in the UK for talking to
The Guardian about plotting a "revolution" in his homeland.
Kremlin officials called it a "disturbing moment" in Anglo-Russian relations. Berezovsky remained a wanted man in Russia until his death in March 2013; having been accused of
embezzlement and
money laundering. Russia re-commenced long range air patrols of the
Tupolev Tu-95 bomber aircraft in August 2007. These patrols neared British airspace, requiring
RAF fighter jets to "
scramble" and intercept them. In January 2008, Russia ordered two offices of the
British Council situated in Russia to shut down, accusing them of tax violations. Eventually, work was suspended at the offices, with the council citing "intimidation" by the Russian authorities as the reason. However, later in the year a Moscow court threw out most of the tax claims made against the British Council, ruling them invalid. During the
2008 South Ossetia war between Russia and
Georgia, then-UK foreign secretary,
David Miliband, visited the Georgian capital city of
Tbilisi to meet with the Georgian President and said the UK's government and people "stood in solidarity" with the Georgian people. and Russian president
Dmitry Medvedev with their spouses at
10 Downing Street, on 1 April 2009 Earlier in 2009, then solicitor-general,
Vera Baird, personally decided that the property of the
Russian Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom, which had been the subject of a legal dispute following the decision of the administering Bishop and half its clergy and lay adherents to move to the jurisdiction of the
Ecumenical Patriarchate, would have to remain with the
Moscow Patriarchate. She was forced to reassure concerned Members of Parliament that her decision had been made only on legal grounds, and that diplomatic and foreign policy questions had played no part. Baird's determination of the case was however endorsed by the attorney-general
Baroness Patricia Scotland. It attracted much criticism. However, questions continue to be raised that Baird's decision was designed not to offend the Putin government in Russia. In November 2009,
David Miliband visited Russia and described the state of relations between the two countries as "respectful disagreement". Meanwhile, both the UK and Russia declassified a large amount of contemporary material from the highest levels of the political power. In 2004, Alexander Fursenko of the
Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) and Arne Westad of the
London School of Economics started a project to disclose British–Soviet relations during the
Cold War. Four years, the project's direction passed to the historian Alexandr Chubarian, also a member of the RAS, who in 2016 completed the documentation covering from 1943 to 1953.
2010s and Russian president Vladimir Putin in
Sochi, Russia, on 10 May 2013 and Russian president Vladimir Putin at a meeting during the
G20 summit in
Hangzhou, China, on 4 September 2016 In the years after David Cameron became UK prime minister, UK-Russia relations initially showed a marked improvement. In 2011, Cameron visited Russia, and in 2012, Putin visited the UK for the first time in seven years, holding talks with Cameron, and also visiting the
2012 London Olympics together. In May 2013, Cameron flew to meet Putin at his summer residence in
Sochi, Bocharov Ruchei, to hold talks on the
Syria crisis. Cameron described the talks as "very substantive, purposeful and useful", and the leaders exchanged presents with each other. Cameron emphasised the 'commonalities between the two countries', and renewed cooperation between the countries' security services for the
2014 Sochi Olympics. Cameron stated at this time that a more effective relationship between the UK and Russia would "make people in both our countries safer and better off". At that time, it was suggested that Cameron could use his good relations with both US president
Barack Obama, and President Putin to act as a 'go-between' in international relations. In 2014, relations soured drastically following the
Russo-Ukrainian War, with the British government, along with the United States and the European Union, imposing
punitive sanctions on Russia. Cameron criticised the
2014 Crimean status referendum as a "sham", with voters having "voted under the barrel of a kalashnikov", stating "Russia has sought to annex Crimea.... This is a flagrant breach of international law and something we will not recognise." In March 2014, the UK suspended all military cooperation with Russia and halted all extant licences for direct military export to Russia. In September 2014, there were more rounds of sanctions imposed by the EU, targeted at
Russian banking and
oil industries, and at high officials. Russia responded by cutting off food imports from the UK and other countries imposing sanctions. UK prime minister David Cameron and U.S. president Barack Obama jointly wrote for
The Times in early September: "Russia has ripped up the rulebook with its illegal, self-declared
annexation of Crimea and its troops on Ukrainian soil threatening and undermining a sovereign nation state." In 2016, 52% of British people decided to
vote in favor for the country's exit from the
European Union, which was known as
Brexit. As shockwave were sent across the country, both Cameron and British officials accused Russia of meddling the vote. Future British prime minister,
Boris Johnson, was accused of being a Russian stooge and underestimating Russian interference. According to an
Intelligence and security committee report the British government and intelligence agencies failed to conduct any proper assessment of Kremlin attempts to interfere with the Brexit referendum. In early 2017, during her meeting with U.S. president
Donald Trump, the UK prime minister
Theresa May appeared to take a line harsher than that of the U.S. on the Russian sanctions. In April 2017, Moscow's ambassador to the UK
Alexander Yakovenko strongly criticised the UK for "raising tensions in Europe" by deploying 800 troops to Estonia. Yakovenko stated that UK-Russia relations were at an "all-time low", adding that there was no longer any "bilateral relationship of substance" between the countries. In mid-November 2017, in her
Guildhall speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet, prime minister May called Russia "chief among those today, of course" who sought to undermine the "open economies and free societies" Britain was committed to, according to her. She went on to elaborate: "[Russia] is seeking to weaponise information. Deploying its state-run media organisations to plant fake stories and photo-shopped images in an attempt to sow discord in the West and undermine our institutions. So I have a very simple message for Russia. We know what you are doing. And you will not succeed." Theresa May's Banquet speech was compared by some Russian commentators to
Winston Churchill's
Iron Curtain speech in
Fulton in March 1946; it was hailed by
Andrew Rosenthal in a front-page article run by
The New York Times that contrasted May's message against some statements about Putin made by Donald Trump, who, according to Rosenthal, "far from denouncing Putin's continuous assaults on human rights and free speech in Russia, [...] praised [Putin] as being a better leader than
Obama." in Russia, on 7 July 2018 In December 2017,
Boris Johnson became the first
UK foreign secretary to visit Russia in five years. Johnson said that UK-Russia relations were "not on a good footing" but he "wanted them to improve", after talks in Moscow. Russia's foreign minister
Sergei Lavrov accused the UK of making "insulting" statements ahead of the meeting, adding that it was "no secret that Britain's relations with Russia were at a 'low point'", but said he "trusted Mr Johnson" and the two countries had agreed on the need to work together on the
UN Security Council. In March 2018, as a result of the
poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in
Salisbury, relations between the countries deteriorated still further, both countries expelling 23 diplomats each and taking
other punitive measures against one another. Within days of the incident, the UK government's assessment that it was "highly likely" that the Russian state was responsible for the incident received the backing of the EU, the US, and Britain's other allies. In what the Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson called the "extraordinary international response" on the part of the UK's allies, on 26 and 27 March 2018 there followed a concerted action by the U.S., most of the EU member states,
Albania,
Australia,
Canada,
Macedonia,
Moldova, and
Norway, as well as NATO to expel a total of over 140 Russian accredited diplomats (including those expelled by the UK). Additionally, in July 2018, the COBR committee were assembled following a poisoning of two other British citizens in the town of
Amesbury, not far from
Salisbury, the location of the Skripals' poisoning. It was later confirmed by
Porton Down that the substance was a
Novichok agent.
Sajid Javid, the United Kingdom's home secretary insisted in the house of commons that he was letting the investigation teams conduct a full investigation into what had happened before jumping to a major conclusion. He then re-iterated the initial question to Russia regarding the Novichok agent, accusing them of using the United Kingdom as a 'dumping ground'. In his speech at the
RUSI Land Warfare Conference in June 2018, the
Chief of the General Staff Mark Carleton-Smith said that British troops should be prepared to "fight and win" against the "imminent" threat of hostile
Russia. In a November 2018 interview with the
Daily Telegraph, Carleton-Smith said that "Russia today indisputably represents a far greater threat to our national security than Islamic extremist threats such as
al-Qaeda and
ISIL. ... We cannot be complacent about the threat Russia poses or leave it uncontested." Conservative Party leader Boris Johnson's victory in the
2019 United Kingdom general election received a mixed response from Russia. Press Secretary
Dmitry Peskov questioned "how appropriate ... hopes are in the case of the Conservatives" of good relations following the election. However, Putin praised Johnson, stating that "he felt the mood of British society better than his opponents".
2020s and Russian president Vladimir Putin at the
Berlin Conference on Libya, 19 January 2020 In March 2020, the British government declared Russia the most "acute" threat to UK security in the
Integrated Review, which defines the government's foreign, defence, security and international development policies. In June 2021, a confrontation occurred between and the
Russian Armed Forces in the
2021 Black Sea incident.
Russian invasion of Ukraine met with Russian defense minister
Sergei Shoigu, who assured him that Russia was not going to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In response to the
Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 the UK government applied economic sanctions on Russian banks and individual citizens and banned
Aeroflot aeroplanes from entering British airspace, in retaliation the Russian government banned British aeroplanes from entering Russian airspace. Britain also supplied the Ukrainians with military equipment; most notably sending
NLAW missiles to Ukraine, commencing in January 2022 in anticipation of the Russian invasion. As of 16 March 2022, the UK confirmed that it had delivered more than 4,000 NLAWs to Ukraine. In addition the UK commenced supplying Ukraine with
Starstreak missiles (HVM) to help prevent Russian air supremacy. British soldiers were sent via Poland to help train Ukrainian forces. These were sent as an interim measure until the arrival of the
Sky Sabre missile defence system. On 26 February 2022, Britain and its partners took "decisive action" to block Russia's banks' access to the
SWIFT international payment system, according to British prime minister Boris Johnson. On 5 March 2022, Britain again issued statements condemning Russia's actions in Ukraine, and also urged its citizens to consider leaving the country. "If your presence in Russia is not essential, we strongly advise that you consider leaving by remaining commercial routes," announced the British government in a statement. On 11 March 2022, the United Kingdom imposed sanctions on 386 members of Russia's lower house of parliament and announced that it would attempt to prohibit the export of luxury products to Russia in order to raise diplomatic pressure on Russian president Vladimir Putin over the invasion of Ukraine. On 12 March 2022, France, the United Kingdom, and Germany cautioned Russia that its demands for economic guarantees with Iran could jeopardize an almost-completed nuclear deal. On 17 March 2022, the United Kingdom said it had "very, very strong evidence" of war crimes in Ukraine, and that Russian president Vladimir Putin was orchestrating them. " (red). Countries and territories on the list have imposed or joined
sanctions against Russia. On 24 March 2022, the
Kremlin declared Prime Minister Boris Johnson as the most active anti-Russian leader. Downing Street rejected these claims and stated that the Prime Minister was "anti-Putin" and had no issue with the Russian people. On 3 May 2022, Russia aired a segment titled
The Sinkable Island. During the segment, hosted by
Dmitry Kiselyov, a simulation showing a hypothetical nuclear attack on
Great Britain was shown. On 8 May 2022, British prime minister Boris Johnson's office stated that G7 leaders agreed that the world should increase economic pressure on Russian president Vladimir Putin in whatever manner feasible. Besides supplying lethal aid to Ukraine, the UK has stated intent to mobilise for the possible event of direct involvement in a broader conflict with Russia as announced by
General Sir Patrick Sanders on 28 June 2022 in what was known as Operation Mobilise. In July 2022, the UK sanctioned its own citizen, journalist
Graham Phillips, who had been reporting from the Russian side, for his work which "supports and promotes actions and policies which destabilise Ukraine and undermine or threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty, or independence of Ukraine." On 29 September 2022, a Russian
Su-27 fighter "released" a missile in the vicinity of a Royal Air Force
Boeing RC-135 Rivet Joint which was carrying out a routine patrol over the Black Sea. Both the UK and Russia agreed that it was due to a technical malfunction, rather than a deliberate escalation. Patrols were temporarily suspended by the RAF following the incident but later resumed with fighter escorts. in Ukrainian service on display at Moscow's Victory Park on
Poklonnaya Hill, 2024 On 29 October 2022, Russia accused the UK of involvement in the
2022 Nord Stream pipeline sabotage, which it claimed were carried out by the Royal Navy, in addition to involvement in the drone strikes on the
Sevastopol Naval Base. The UK Ministry of Defence released a statement denouncing the claims and stated that Russia was "peddling lies on an epic scale". Earlier in the month, Russia had also accused the UK of involvement in the
Crimean Bridge explosion. In July 2024, British prime minister
Keir Starmer gave Ukraine permission to
strike targets inside Russia with British-supplied
Storm Shadow missiles. On 24 February 2025, the U.K. unveiled new sanctions against Russia to mark the third anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine. ==Espionage and influence operations==