Befriending Russia

To The Guardian

For three years in the late 1990s, Sergey Lavrov was my Russian counterpart when we represented our countries on the UN Security Council in New York. Despite some obvious policy differences, Lavrov never played the UK false; he was a serious and creative negotiator, with a good sense of humour and a passion for the English language and its literature.

To decline Lavrov’s invitation for our new foreign secretary to visit Moscow, just when new tensions show such contacts are most needed, seems ill-advised. Hard, too, to square with the windy rhetoric, since the Brexit referendum, that Britain will re-emerge as a world power rejuvenated. John Weston, Richmond, Surrey