Russia–United Kingdom relations
Russia–United Kingdom relations, also Anglo-Russian relations, are the bilateral relations between the Russian Federation and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Formal ties between the nations started in 1553. Russia and Britain became allies against Napoleon in the early-19th century. They were enemies in the Crimean War of the 1850s, and rivals in the Great Game for control of Central Asia in the latter half of the 19th century. They allied again in World Wars I and II, although the Russian Revolution of 1917 strained relations. The two countries again became enemies during the Cold War. Russia's business tycoons developed strong ties with London financial institutions in the 1990s after the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. Due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, relations became very tense after the United Kingdom imposed sanctions against Russia. It was subsequently added to Russia's list of "unfriendly countries".
The two countries share a history of intense espionage activity against each other, with the Soviet Union succeeding in penetration of top echelons of the British intelligence and security establishment in the 1930s–1950s while concurrently, the British co-opted top Russian intelligence officers throughout the period including the 1990s whereby British spies such as Sergei Skripal acting within the Russian intelligence establishment passed on extensive details of their intelligence agents operating throughout Europe. Since the 19th century, England has been a popular destination for Russian political exiles, refugees, and wealthy fugitives from the Russophone world.
In the early-21st century, especially following the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in 2006, relations became strained. In the early years of David Cameron as UK prime minister, there was a brief uptick in relations, up until 2014. Since 2014, relations have grown increasingly unfriendly due to the Russo-Ukrainian War and the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in 2018. In the wake of the poisoning, 28 countries expelled suspected Russian spies acting as diplomats. In June 2021, a confrontation occurred between and the Russian Armed Forces in the 2021 Black Sea incident.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, relations between the two nuclear powers collapsed entirely; the United Kingdom imposed economic sanctions on Russian outlets, seized the assets of Russian oligarchs, recalled its citizens and severed all business ties with Russia. Russia retaliated with its own sanctions against the UK and accused it of involvement in attacks against Sevastopol Naval Base, the Nord Stream gas pipeline and the Crimean Bridge. The UK is one of the largest donors of financial and military aid to Ukraine and was the first country in Europe to donate lethal military aid.
Historical background
Relations 1553–1792
The Kingdom of England and Tsardom of Russia established relations in 1553 when English navigator Richard Chancellor arrived at a port that later became Arkhangelsk in the White Sea – at which time Mary I ruled England and Ivan the Terrible ruled Russia. He returned to England and was sent back to Russia in 1555, the same year the Muscovy Company was established.Tsar Ivan IV of Russia and Queen Elizabeth I of England maintained diplomatic relations in the late 16th century through intermediaries such as the English merchant and diplomat Anthony Jenkinson. In the late 1570s, Ivan IV sent ambassadors to England with a proposal of marriage to Elizabeth herself. This was a strategic move, likely aimed at securing an alliance with England, which was a rising maritime power. For Ivan, such an alliance could have provided a counterbalance to the influence of other European powers. Elizabeth, known for her diplomatic shrewdness, did not outright reject the proposal but responded with diplomatic politeness, avoiding a direct refusal while also not seriously entertaining the proposal. The marriage never materialized, and the correspondence between Ivan and Elizabeth continued for some time.
The Muscovy Company held a monopoly over trade between England and Russia until 1698. Tsar Alexei was outraged by the Execution of Charles I of England in 1649, and expelled all English traders and residents from Russia in retaliation.
In 1697–1698 during the Grand Embassy of Peter I the Russian tsar visited England for three months. He improved relations and learned the best new technology especially regarding ships and navigation.
File:Great Game cartoon from 1878.jpg|thumb|Russia depicted as a bear and Britain as a lion eying off an Afghan in the Great Game, 1878
The Kingdom of Great Britain and later the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland had increasingly important ties with the Russian Empire, after Tsar Peter I brought Russia into European affairs and declared himself an emperor. From the 1720s Peter invited British engineers to Saint Petersburg, leading to the establishment of a small but commercially influential Anglo-Russian expatriate merchant community from 1730 to 1921. During the series of general European wars of the 18th century, the two empires found themselves as sometime allies and sometime enemies. The two states fought on the same side during War of the Austrian Succession, but on opposite sides during Seven Years' War, although did not at any time engage in the field.
Ochakov issue
Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger was alarmed at Russian expansion in Crimea in the 1780s at the expense of his Ottoman ally. He tried to get Parliamentary support for reversing it. In peace talks with the Ottomans, Russia refused to return the key Ochakov fortress. Pitt wanted to threaten military retaliation. However, Russia's ambassador Semyon Vorontsov organised Pitt's enemies and launched a public opinion campaign. Pitt won the vote so narrowly that he gave up and Vorontsov secured a renewal of the commercial treaty between Britain and Russia.Napoleonic Wars: 1792–1817
The outbreak of the French Revolution and its attendant wars temporarily united constitutionalist Britain and autocratic Russia in an ideological alliance against French republicanism. Britain and Russia attempted to halt the French but the failure of their joint invasion of the Netherlands in 1799 precipitated a change in attitudes.Britain created Malta Protectorate in 1800, while the emperor Paul I of Russia was Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller. That led to the never-executed Indian March of Paul, which was a secret project of a planned allied Russo-French expedition against the British possessions in India.
In 1805 both countries again attempted to combine operations with British expeditions to North Germany and Southern Italy in concert with Russian expeditionary corps were intended to create diversions in favour of Austria. However, several spectacular French victories in central Europe ended the Third Coalition.
Following the heavy Russian defeat at Friedland, Russia was obliged to enter Napoleon's Continental System, barring all trade with Britain. Subsequently, both countries entered into a state of limited war, the Anglo-Russian War, although neither side actively prosecuted operations against each other.
In 1812 Britain and Russia once again became allies against Napoleon in the Napoleonic Wars. The United Kingdom gave financial and material support to Russia during the French invasion in 1812, following which both countries pledged to keep 150,000 men in the field until Napoleon had been totally defeated. They both played major cooperative roles at the Congress of Vienna in 1814–1815 establishing a twenty-year alliance to guarantee European peace.
Eastern Question, Great Game, Russophobia
From 1820 to 1907, geopolitical disputes led to a gradual deterioration in Anglo-Russian relations. Popular sentiment in Britain turned increasingly hostile to Russia, with a high degree of anxiety for the safety of British rule in India. The result was a long-standing rivalry in Central Asia. In addition, there was a growing concern that Russia would destabilise Eastern Europe by its attacks on the faltering Ottoman Empire. This fear was known as the Eastern Question. Russia was especially interested in getting a warm water port that would enable its navy. Getting access out of the Black Sea into the Mediterranean was a goal, which meant access through the Straits controlled by the Ottomans.Both intervened in the Greek War of Independence, eventually forcing the London peace treaty on the belligerents. The events heightened British Russophobia. In 1851 the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations held in London's Crystal Palace, including over 100,000 exhibits from forty nations. It was the world's first international exposition. Russia took the opportunity to dispel Russophobia in Britain by refuting stereotypes of Russia as a backward, militaristic repressive tyranny. Its sumptuous exhibits of luxury products and large 'objets d'art' with little in the way of advanced technology, however, did little to change its reputation. Britain considered its navy too weak to worry about, but saw its large army as a major threat.
The Russian pressures on the Ottoman Empire continued, leaving Britain and France to ally with the Ottomans and push back against Russia in the Crimean War. Russophobia was an element in generating popular support in Britain for the far-off conflict. Public opinion in Britain, especially among Whigs, supported Polish revolutionaries who were resisting Russian rule in Poland, after the November Uprising of 1830. The British government watched nervously as Saint Petersburg suppressed the subsequent Polish revolts in the early 1860s, yet refused to intervene.
London hosted the first Russian-language censorship-free periodicals —, Golosa iz Rossii, and Kolokol — were published by Alexander Herzen and Nikolai Ogaryov in 1855–1865, which were of exceptional influence on Russian liberal intellectuals in the first several years of publication. The periodicals were published by the Free Russian Press set up by Herzen in 1853, on the eve of the Crimean War, financed by the funds Herzen had managed to expatriate from Russia with the help of his bankers, the Paris branch of the Rothschild family.