Kremlin: UK’s Brilliant Political Heritage Degraded Under Hostile Policy

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - London has abandoned its "immense" political traditions and the culture of dispute in favor of a "predictably hostile" policy, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with RT news channel.

UK Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson has accused Russia of being behind this month’s nerve agent attack in Salisbury. Asked how Moscow should respond to the UK’s expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats, he told it to "go away and shut up."

Commenting on the UK’s culture of dispute, Peskov told RT it was getting "lower and lower." "What we see is the country of Byron and Shakespeare, the country of Conan-Doyle, the country that used to be a brilliant empire with immense political traditions of diplomacy and so on and so forth, it turned into a country where politicians are making, let me humbly say, irresponsible statements," he said.

"This is a problem. It’s a reflection of a very hostile policy, predictably hostile policy," Peskov added.

A number of countries are so concerned about a rising Russia they are ready to put international laws at risk to contain it, Peskov said.

"And in this tough behavior they are ready to jeopardise international law, the basics of international relations, free trade and commerce regime. They are ready to forget about fair trade, they are ready to forget about WTO rules. They are ready to forget about every rules when they want to suppress Russia," he said.

"We’re witnessing lots elements of the Cold War and, unfortunately, we’re seeing more and more elements of the Cold War in our agenda and we’re facing it in the international relationship. Not all countries are comfortable with the rising Russia, with the leadership of President Putin," Peskov added.

The spokesperson noted that Russia was not going to engage in an arms race which is against President Vladimir Putin’s priorities.

"Russia is not going to be driven into an arms race. It doesn’t correspond with President Putin’s primarily goal of domestic economic development and domestic breakthrough in economy," he said.

"So we all, and President Putin, do not need an arms race. It was confirmed and declared by President Putin and this is the main declaration that we have to take into account," he added.

“President Putin is looking for repairing relationship where it is possible and looking for developing and furthering relationships with various countries, especially our partners in Europe, with the United States, and proceeding in this developing as far as our partners are ready to,” he said.

Peskov stressed that the president’s plan to deal with internal issues would not further isolate Russia from the rest of the world.