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Moscow ready to support UK’s new foreign secretary if she opts for mending ties — source

Liz Truss is a pragmatic politician with extensive government and international experience, the source said

LONDON, September 15./TASS/. If the new UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss demonstrates a willingness to normalize ties with Russia, this will be supported by Moscow, a source close to the Russian Embassy to the UK told TASS on Wednesday in comments on Wednesday’s appointment.

Truss is a pragmatic politician with extensive government and international experience, the source said. If she decides to break the years-long impasse in Russian-UK relations, this willingness will be supported in Moscow, the source said.

It was officially announced on Wednesday, that Liz Truss, who was international trade secretary, will become foreign secretary in the new Cabinet of Prime Minister Boris Johnson. She replaces Dominic Raab, who led the Foreign Office since July 2019. Raab becomes justice secretary.

On the Russian track, Raab was actively in favor of the introduction of a Magnitsky act after Brexit, and was among the key figures who began the discussion of that issue back in 2012. Later, as UK Foreign Secretary, he made several statements on the issue.

Russian Ambassador in London Andrei Kelin admitted earlier that Russia and the UK continued to cooperate on economic and cultural issues, but on the political front their relations were "practically dead.".