Russia does not hold back hope that with the inauguration of the new British Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, its relations with the United Kingdom will improve, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, quoted by TASS, BTA reports.
“No, we do not have such hopes“, Peskov said in response to a journalistic question and added that President Vladimir Putin is not planning any contacts with Burnham for now.
The new leader of the British Labour Party was sworn in as prime minister yesterday and formed a cabinet.
Peskov noted that Russia had drawn attention to the fact that one of the first statements by the new British prime minister concerned “irresponsible support for Ukraine and, accordingly, Britain's intentions to do everything for the continuation of the war“.
Meanwhile, Britain's new Defense Secretary Wes Streeting described as "irresponsible" the Russian military live-fire exercises held off the English coast, "Reuters".
Speaking to journalists on Tuesday, Streeting commented on the incident after a British minister earlier confirmed that a Russian naval ship had carried out "a brief live-fire weapons exercise" in international waters about 40 nautical miles south of Plymouth in southwest England.
"We must view yesterday's events as performative and irresponsible", Streeting told reporters when asked about the incident.
He added that such behavior was not an isolated incident.
"This is not the first time Russia has behaved in this way and, frankly, this is just the tip of the iceberg of the daily threats that this country and our allies face."
According to British authorities, the exercise was carried out in accordance with standard maritime safety procedures. However, the incident has drawn criticism from the new head of the British Ministry of Defense amid ongoing tensions between Russia and Western allies.