LONDON, February 10. /TASS/. In the past year, the relations between Russia and the United Kingdom stabilized at the low level, with no signs of improvement seen, Russian Ambassador to the UK Andrei Kelin said in an interview with Russia journalists.
"Let us have no illusions - the past year was not characterized by any flurry of activity in diplomacy. We had to cancel nearly all visits, we even had to cancel events like a tour by the Bolshoi Theatre and a business forum. In general, I should say that in the past few years, especially in 2020, the relations stabilized at a low level," he said.
The diplomat explained that although the events that he had mentioned were cancelled as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic, there was little hope for improvement of ties between Moscow and London.
"The past year fell short of expectations that relations would improve against the backdrop of the pandemic. We are still being portrayed as an enemy here, although we are open for most friendly cooperation," the ambassador said, adding that about ten "baseless accusations" were voiced against Russia in the UK in 2020. "So far, I see no positive signs in this entire affair," he continued.
"No need to close our relations with the United Kingdom - we are two states that have always been, are and will be. We have been through various stages of relations. After sunset, there is always a dawn," the Russian diplomat added.
Speaking about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Kelin said that Russia and the United Kingdom have had no inter-state cooperation in developing coronavirus vaccines, although companies from the two states maintain some sort of contact.
"As far as vaccines and cooperation of intergovernmental institutions or health ministries is concerned, there have been no cooperation of this kind," he said. "We, on our part, attempted to create it, suggested swapping samples and requested samples taken from vaccinated persons. Regretfully, this request was turned down."
"The United Kingdom is focused on two vaccines - by US-German [consortium] Pfizer - BioNTech and by UK-Swedish company AstraZeneca. AstraZeneca has extensive and longstanding interests in Russia, it is working there, so there have been no problems in cooperation among private companies here, including by our Gamaleya Institute," the ambassador said. "It [cooperation] continues even now, research is under way, including on ways to increase effectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine, although I’m not aware of results at the moment. There was no such cooperation at the intergovernmental level, but it is developing at the level of Russian and UK companies.".