Embassy comment on anti-Russian allegations in the context of the UK’s new National Security Strategy

On 24 June, the Government of the United Kingdom unveiled an updated version of the country’s National Security Strategy.

The modern world is indeed defined by numerous challenges, most of them multifaceted and cross-border in nature. The only way of effectively addressing them is via the joint efforts of the international community. Among the trials facing Britain there are many that have come about with the acquiescence — deliberate or careless — of successive UK governments.

Nevertheless, Keir Starmer’s cabinet has once again chosen to exploit this serious topic to promote a surreal agenda driven by political opportunism. The Strategy is dominated by supposed threats emanating from Russia. This serves as pretext for directing highly offensive rhetoric against our country.

We are compelled to underscore once again: these accusations are hollow and futile. Russia poses no threat to the United Kingdom or its people.

Throughout the long and multifaceted history of our bilateral relations it is London that has repeatedly instigated conflict and masterminded grand provocations against Russia. One need only recall Winston Churchill’s plan, called Operation Unthinkable, to launch an attack against the Soviet Union at the end of the Second World War.

The Labour government, after coming to power in the summer of 2024, had a chance to break the vicious circle of hysterical scaremongering enabled by its predecessors, and to begin restoring bilateral relations for the UK’s own benefit. Instead, they chose to deepen confrontation and fuel tension — and have continued down this path with remarkable perseverance.

The goal is laid bare in the Strategy’s foreword: to impress NATO allies and dazzle them with anti-Russian bluster. This makes it easier to manipulate the budget, supposedly allowing for increased military spending over the next decade — at a time when there is and will be no money. It also serves to create a semblance of “national unity” — something the current cabinet ministers clearly fail to achieve via constructive policy or tangible improvements in living standards.

Hence, even more cynically than their Conservative predecessors, they resort to concocting anti-Russian “horror stories”, hoping that fear will rally the nation.

But as their renowned compatriot George Orwell might have explained to Labour, this is a dead end.