Russian Envoy to UK on Britain's nuclear stockpile, says diplomatic ties 'nearly dead'

Diplomatic ties between the UK and Russia are 'nearly dead', Russia’s ambassador to Britain Andrei Kelin stated on Sunday. In a televised interview with the broadcaster LBC, London, Kelin accused the UK of breach of international treaty obligations, citing the UK’s stockpiling of the nuclear arsenal, which he alleged that harms "global security". 

Britain has reversed its commitment to arms control after it ramped up 180 nuclear warheads to 260, significantly bolstering its nuclear weaponry and expanding the military framework, which Moscow said was "at odds' with international treaty commitments. However, lambasting Moscow, the UK in the foreign and defense policy review published on Tuesday said that Russia poses a "spectrum of threats" to the security of Euro-Atlantic region. 

The Integrated Review was drafted within the UK’s post-Brexit foreign policy, which outlined Britain’s commitment to ramp up its nuclear armament to 260 by 2030. The report also held Moscow accountable for the alleged poisoning of a former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Sergei Skripal, and the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko with a weapons-grade nerve agent, citing Britain’s top counter-terrorism officer’s probe. In 2018, the UK also accused Russia of having a role in the death of British woman Dawn Sturgess and her partner Charlie Rowley with novichok poisonings. Several such cases thwarted relations between London and Moscow. The UK, in the sensational report, also accused Kremlin-linked actors of hacking into the British coronavirus research labs and launching disinformation about coronavirus vaccines with a 'vaccine hesitancy' campaign. 

UK 'rebuffed' dialogue efforts, says Russia

In his televised address, however, Kelin brought out these allegations against Moscow saying UK has rebuffed Russia’s attempts of dialogue for resolution of long-existing conflicts and differences. Furthermore, he lambasted UK’s administrative officials, saying that their unsubstantiated allegations have effectively "demolished" bilateral relations between the two nations. The Russian envoy strongly reacted to the UK’s goal of ‘strengthening’ its military capacity, expressing shock as he said the agenda is to increase the number of warheads by 40 per cent, which he described, was the violation of the non-proliferation treaty. “The plan is illegal,” he said in the live-streamed televised interview that aired Sunday, whose partial transcript was released on the radio station’s website. 

“The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which Britain has ratified, came into force in 1970. The UK government had previously stated that it will not beach the terms of the pact,” the radio broadcaster translated Kelin’s exact statement.

Moscow’s top envoy was referring to his talks with  UK’s foreign minister Dominic Raab which he held around December 2019. However, the British press on Sunday quoted a government spokesperson as saying that UK was “fully committed” to strengthen and modernize UK’s security and its NATO allies, with a “careful” and minimum nuclear deterrence.