By Matt Mulley - 11th December 2009
Important steps are being taken to improve UK/Russia relations, the country's ambassador has told an all-party parliamentary group.
Yuri Fedotov told MPs and peers from the APPG on Russia that there is 'an improving dynamic' between the two countries.
Foreign secretary David Miliband recently visited Russia, and numerous other high-level visits have taken place including one by his brother, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Miliband.
More progress has been made on economic and trade issues, but these political exchanges are ‘important steps’ in bilateral relations, the ambassador said.
Much of the early part of the meeting was devoted to discussing the so-called 'August War' between Russia and Georgia.
In response to advanced questions from the APPG, Ambassador Fedotov outlined Russia's reaction to the recent report by the EU-sponsored Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Conflict in Georgia (IIFFMCG).
The ambassador welcomed the report as balanced and objective. He said that in Russia's view it clearly demonstrates that Georgia initiated a large-scale military action against the province of South Ossetia.
He described some of the antecedents to the conflict, evident in the ethnic and political history of the region.
He also re-stated the Russian position that is actions amounted to an intervention in an already-extant conflict in Georgia with aim of securing peace.
Ambassador Fedotov wanted to make clear that Russia has no quarrel with the Georgian people, but has serious misgivings about the Georgian government.
This provoked comments both of support and contradiction from the group members present, and led to some discussion of the both the justification and the proportionality of Russia's military actions.
Since the conflict several rounds of talks have taken place in Geneva between Russia and Georgia under the auspices of the United Nations, The European Union and the OSCE.
Several group members raised concerns that the slow pace of these talks has hindered cooperation on the humanitarian consequences of the conflict.
Both group members and the ambassador agreed that getting help for the thousands of displaced people in and South Ossetia and Georgia proper should be the biggest priority of those involved.
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd