Theresa May’s package of diplomatic and economic measures against Russia is measured, focused but unlikely to put additional economic pressure on either Russia or Vladimir Putin’s entourage, British defence and diplomatic analysts have said. Jonathan Eyal, an associate director at the military thinktank Rusi, said he had expected a stronger reaction. “There may be an element of seeing whether anything can be saved from the relationship. Simply blowing everything up to satisfy a media clamour is not the most sensible way of dealing with Russia.” Rusi’s deputy director general, Malcolm Chalmers, said: “None of the measures in themselves will have any impact on Russian economic performance.” Mathieu Boulègue, a Russia expert at Chatham House, another thinktank, said: “The Kremlin will understand this as a very mild response. Putin is unlikely to be worried by this.” British officials described the package as calibrated, calm and fair, and said further options were on the table if the Kremlin did not change its behaviour. Diplomats The expulsion of 23 of the 58 accredited Russian diplomats is numerically smaller than a similar move by Alec Douglas-Home, the foreign secretary in Ted Heath’s government, in 1971. But since then the Soviet Union has collapsed and… Read full this story
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