English epiphany: “Britain has become Russia's public enemy number one!”

They are already here – the British army has invaded Russian soil! A British soldier James Scott Rhys Anderson, fighting for Ukraine, has been taken prisoner by the Russian army in Kursk region inside Russia.
Photo: ‘The Guardian’

This is a fantastic article of ‘The Daily Mail”!

The British have begun to understand why Russia considers Britain to be its main enemy.

The Russia's intelligence agency label Britain a 'warmonger' and 'perfidious Albion', while top Kremlin officials have blamed Sir Keir Starmer and his government for trying to derail Donald Trump's efforts to broker peace in Ukraine.

Meanwhile a diplomatic war is also being waged, with Moscow expelling a British Embassy official and the spouse of another diplomat after accusing them of spying - allegations London called 'baseless'.

'It is clear that the Russian state is actively seeking to drive the British Embassy in Moscow towards closure,' the British Foreign Office said in a statement on Wednesday. A Russian diplomat was expelled in retaliation as tensions escalated.

All of these developments reflect how Britain is now regarded as Russia's main foe, as three Russian officials described to Reuters, with Moscow said to be fuming that London is 'stoking chaos and war' in Ukraine.

Russian politicians were infuriated by Sir Keir's talk this month of putting British boots on the ground and planes in the air in Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping force, and have vowed revenge for Kyiv's use of UK weapons during the three-year war.

Andrei Gurulyov, a  lawmaker and former military commander, told state TV in January: 'If today Britain is hitting our territory with its missiles from Ukraine… I consider this a good reason for Britain to cease to exist.'

A study published this week warned that Putin's fleet of rocket-laden submarines and warships off the coast of Norway are indeed posing an acute threat to the UK, which does not have enough air defences to protect itself.

Russia's Northern fleet, which carries 800 cruise missiles including ones like the Kalibr capable of hitting a target more than 1,500 miles away, could be used to launch an attack on Britain, which does not have enough air defences to protect itself:

'The missile threat is the most stark it has been since the end of the Cold War,' the report states.

Amid widespread concern Russian state TV anchor Kiselyov used his flagship show this month to quip that the entire British army could fit into London's Wembley football stadium.

Despite the crowing about Britain's military shortcomings, Moscow has also cast it as the leading aggressor among Kyiv's allies, with one official labelling London 'the locomotive and pull others along with them'.

Britain, which offers training and finance to the Ukrainian military, was the first country to pledge Western-made main battle tanks to Kyiv and the first to deliver long-range cruise missiles – a move which deeply angered the Kremlin.

So too did Sir Keir Starmer's hosting of a meeting of the 'coalition of the willing', as well as his in-person and phone lobbying of Trump to support Ukraine.

'London today, like on the eve of both World Wars of the last century, is acting as the main global 'warmonger',' Russia's foreign intelligence service said, without elaborating on what its objections were to Britain's behaviour prior to the wars.

'The time has come to expose them and send a clear message to 'perfidious Albion' and its elites: you will not succeed,' the agency, known as SVR, declared in its unusually charged public statement on Monday.

The new, souring anti-British mood, which has been accompanied by a marked and rapid softening of anti-US rhetoric in state media, could leave London more exposed.

Some lawmakers have said companies from 'hostile' nations like Britain should not be allowed back even if Western sanctions are eased after an eventual peace deal with Ukraine, or given a much harder ride if they are.

Vyacheslav Volodin, a top Putin ally, this week spoke of the need to claw back money from Britain, a reference to interest accrued on frozen Russian assets in the UK worth around $26 billion that London has been handing to Ukraine.

British-Russia trade has shrunk from over 16 billion pounds in 2021 to just over 2 billion pounds in 2023, according to UK government data, with oil company BP taking a hit of over $20 billion to exit Russia in 2022.

Despite London's popularity as a Russian investment destination, distrust of Britain traces its roots back to at least the Crimean War of 1853-1856.

Russian propagandists have increasingly repeated the same derogatory phrase, which dates back to Britain's hostile foreign policy towards Russia under Queen Victoria, to express their dislike for the British and their support for Ukraine.

While stating that Britain was 'once again trying to derail the peace process in Ukraine,' a piece in the Izvestia newspaper last week read: 'The Englishwoman always causes a mess – this saying dates back to the 19th century and still applies today.'

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