Kremlin warns Britain to shed Cold War mentality

The Kremlin gave Britain warning yesterday that there would be no improvement in relations until it abandoned Cold War-hostility towards Russia.

The Foreign Ministry said that Britain had become increasingly critical of Russia, urged on by Boris Berezovsky, the billionaire anti-Kremlin campaigner, and other political refugees.

Its annual diplomatic review appeared to dash hopes of a fresh start between London and Moscow once Dmitri Medvedev succeeds Vladimir Putin as President in May. The ministry accused Gordon Brown's Government of holding outdated attitudes in its dealings with Russia.

“There has been no decisive moving away from the stereotypes of the Cold War era in the political policies of the British elite,” it said. “If this problem is not resolved it will be hard to count on the normalisation of Russian-British relations.” It said relations had worsened as a result of the decision by David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, to expel four Russian diplomats last July. The envoys were expelled after Mr Putin refused to extradite Andrei Lugovoy, the man suspected of murdering Alexander Litvinenko, the dissident former spy, with radioactive polonium-210 in London in November 2006.

The ministry said that tensions had been fanned by Mr Berezovsky and Akhmed Zakayev, the Chechen separatist envoy, who have political asylum in London. Both men are wanted in Russia but British courts have rejected extradition requests, ruling that they would not face a fair trial.

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