Russian Ambassador to Britain: "Spy on your obsolete nuclear submarines? Don't make me laugh"
Russian Ambassador to Britain Andrei Kelin commented on the information that sensors were found in British waters, allegedly with the help of which the Russians are trying to collect intelligence data on four British Vanguard nuclear submarines with nuclear weapons on board.
The ambassador expressed his opinion in an interview with the BBC, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
"These are serious allegations of genuine hostility towards the United Kingdom. Do you deny that?" asked interviewer Laura Kuenssberg.
The ambassador noted that he was not going to deny it.
"But I wonder if we're really interested in monitoring old British submarines with horribly outdated nuclear warheads. This is all common knowledge. And all these threats are greatly exaggerated. I deny the existence of a threat to the United Kingdom; this threat was completely invented. There is no threat to the United Kingdom from Russia. If the United Kingdom wants to invent threats, that's its business," Kelin replied.
At the same time, he pointed out that the British were going too far in their paranoia, citing the country's Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS) scheme as an example.
"I must now speak about this terrible new instrument. It's the foreign influence registration system that was introduced here. It 's a humiliation for Russians who interact with British citizens . It will ruin our cultural, humanitarian, scientific, and all other relations. I would say it's a McCarthyist instrument, if you know what that is . But it's up to you whether you want to continue the relationship or invent new threats emanating from Russia—that's up to the United Kingdom. But the world is a big place," the ambassador concluded.
Russian Ambassador to Britain : "Spy on your obsolete nuclear submarines? Don't be ridiculous."