LONDON, February 9. /TASS/. The economic relations between Russia and the UK are developing despite the lack of support from official London, Russian ambassador to the UK Andrey Kelin told TASS.
"Economically, everything is fine, relations are developing although without the support of the British government. This is happening thanks to the enthusiasm of economic operators," the diplomat said.
"British business in Moscow feels absolutely fine, just like other businesses, there is no persecution, there is no pressure on it," he added.
Among the examples of successful bilateral cooperation, Kelin named JBC’s supplies of road construction equipment to Russia, creation of large data storage centers in Russia’s by the Ixelerate company as well as projects implemented by the AstraZeneca pharmaceutical company and by the OneWeb telecommunication company.
"Over the past year, the trade turnover reached about $27 billion plus accumulated mutual investments amounted to about $30 billion," the diplomat said.
"But we need to create and restore the mechanisms that we had and which were destroyed by the British authorities back in 2013, even before the Ukrainian crisis. This is a joint intergovernmental commission, a dialogue of energy agencies, a commission for scientific and technical cooperation. All this was destroyed by the British side unilaterally, and so far, there is no progress in this regard. But I am sure that the Brits are interested in the Russian market," Kelin said.
Speaking about political relations, the diplomat admitted that "there are a number of complex and neglected issues in bilateral relations that cannot resolve themselves and need to be resolved."
The ambassador noted that after 2014 "Europe has been gradually turning into a deterrent for Russia," and the fact that the UK left the EU only aggravated this situation.