All In The Past
William Hague’s visit to Moscow saw some friendly exchanges with Russian leaders, with both sides almost certainly seeing the advantages of trading their incidental disputes for a healthier ‘business and trade‘ relationship. It does seem unlikely that business ties will revive swiftly whilst anyone can remember TNK-BP’s ousting of Robert Dudley however, which suggests that what Britain really wants (and, some say, badly needs) is support in Afghanistan.
Either way, as The Guardian notes, such cooperation will involve some serious smoothing over. And, luckily for us, the occasional humorous effect – such as this delightful image of Sergei Lavrov rushing to defend Hague from an awkward journalist question about UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s pre-premiership snideness.
During today’s press conference, Hague was reminded by a journalist of Cameron’s remark during Russia’s 2008 war with Georgia that “Russian armies can’t march into other countries while Russian shoppers carry on marching into Selfridges.” (Cameron also called for Russia to be suspended from the G8.) Lavrov came to Hague’s rescue, pointing out that Cameron had not said anything similar “as prime minister”.
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