Interview with Roderic Braithwaite

Sir Roderick Braithwaite, the former UK Ambassador to Russia, joined RT to comment on the current row between London and Moscow.

“Yes, it's going to get worse, that's inevitable but these things happen from time to time and it will get better again after a period. I don't know how long it will take, it'll depend on how the Russians react to it, which I assume they will do something fairly substantial and then both sides will wonder whether they have gone too far and start trying to find ways of, as it were, repairing the relationship. I mean, if you look back at previous cases that's what always happens,” he said.

“And the one thing I think is important to emphasize that it is not going back to the Cold War. The Cold War was a really serious confrontation. Each side was terrified of the other and there were lots of spies around doing bad things. And in those days you could have talked about a Cold War the way you can't now, for reasons I said earlier. The sort of things, that are going on now between Russia and Britain, simply couldn't have happened in the Cold war. 200,000 Russians living in London, or whatever the figure is. And not seeking political asylum, they are there because they work and go home, and send their kids there and travel back. So it's a totally different sort of circumstances today,” the former Ambassador added.