MOSCOW, October 20. /TASS/. Andrey Lugovoy, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption, has proposed closing the UK Embassy in Russia on December 14, 2026.

"I would like to address the Foreign Ministry. It is high time we closed the UK Embassy, I suggest doing this on the day the exhibition (of an international project titled Britlag - TASS) opens, on December 14, the International Day Against Colonialism in All Its Forms and Manifestations," Lugovoy told a plenary session of the State Duma.

Lugovoy said he plans to visit the Solovetsky Stone in Moscow on October 30 and personally present the British ambassador with a souvenir depicting a scene from Vasily Vereshchagin’s painting Blowing from Guns in British India. The painting portrays the brutal execution of an Indian sepoy by British forces using the so-called "devil’s wind" method, in which a person was tied to a cannon’s muzzle and killed by a cannonball fired through their body.

The lawmaker also proposed holding the Britlag exhibition, dedicated to the victims of British colonialism, outside the UK Embassy, as well as organizing a contest to choose a site for a Britlag monument in Moscow, London, New Delhi, Beijing, Kenya and Jamaica. He also called for an expert review of history textbooks to assess how fully they "reflect the colonial face of Britain."

Lugovoy said Russia should help countries in Africa and the Caribbean with their efforts to establish reparations commissions, ensuring that Britain "settles its debts."

"The 'Britlag' project will provide our friends with a platform in parliament. We will ask the Foreign Ministry for support and help with archival research - the 'Britlag' library already contains over a thousand records. We will also help prepare legally substantiated claims for reparations. We have conducted in-depth work on this issue and are ready to move forward," he noted.