» Monday, March 3, 2008

Russian Election

Asked for a reaction regarding the Russian election, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) replied that the Prime Minister had written a letter of congratulations to President Medvedev saying that he looked forward to seeing him at the G8 summit in July. We had always said that we would look for opportunities to improve our relationship with Russia and hoped to see greater Russian cooperation on a number of issues, but we should judge the new Government on its actions and the results of those actions.

Asked if there was concern about the electoral procedure, the PMS said that it was a bit too early to reach any judgement on that at this point.

Asked if there was any reason why there was a letter rather than a phonecall, the PMS replied that sending a letter of congratulations was quite a normal thing to do; there were no current plans for a call or a meeting but, as already stated, the letter had said that the Prime Minister looked forward to seeing President Medvedev at the G8 summit in July.

Asked if that could be interpreted as a gentle warming towards Russia, the PMS said that he would leave the interpreting to the journalist.

Asked what we wanted Russia’s cooperation on, apart from the Litvinenko case, the PMS replied that the Litvinenko case was obviously the main issue of concern we had with Russia at the moment. However, Russia had an important role in many of our international priorities, for example, energy security, climate change and international peace and security. Continuing to engage with Russia on these issues remained important to us.

Asked if the Prime Minister’s letter brought up any of those issues, the PMS said that he did not want to get into exactly what the letter did and did not say; it was a letter of congratulations to Mr Medledev. Our concerns regarding the Litvinenko issue, in particular, were very well known to the Russians.

original source.

Briefing took place at 11:00 | Search for related news

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