Keep Russia in check, Britain tells allies

WASHINGTON: New British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt will urge the United States and European countries to do more to call out Russia’s “malign behaviour” and keep Vladimir Putin in check, notably by implementing tough sanctions.

“The established rules of international conduct are repeatedly being flouted by major countries like Russia,” Hunt was to say in Washington, in his first major policy speech since succeeding Boris Johnson in July.

“Such aggressive and malign behaviour undermines the international order that keeps us safe,” Hunt was to tell an audience at the US Institute of Peace, a non-partisan think tank, according to excerpts provided by the Foreign Office.

Jeremy Hunt

“Of course we must engage with Moscow, but we must also be blunt: Russia’s foreign policy under President Putin has made the world a more dangerous place.”

London has blamed the March poisoning in southwestern England of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia – using a Soviet-made nerve agent – on Moscow, plunging the two countries into a diplomatic crisis.

A number of Western countries have punished Moscow by expelling Russian diplomats in a coordinated manner, and some have gone further with other punitive measures.

Those come on top of sanctions already in place over Russia’s annexation of Crimea or Moscow’s interference in foreign elections, notably in the 2016 presidential vote in the United States.

Hunt, who is to meet with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo today, will ask London’s allies to do more.

Russia’s foreign policy under President Putin has made the world a more dangerous place.