MOSCOW (Reuters) -The Kremlin said on Wednesday there had been contact between Britain’s national security adviser, Jonathan Powell, and Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov but that the dialogue did not work out.
The Financial Times reported that Powell had tried to open up a back channel to the Kremlin because Britain and its European allies feared the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump could sideline their interests over Ukraine.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Britain had shown no desire to listen to Russia’s position on the Ukraine conflict.
“There were indeed contacts,” Peskov said. “A dialogue took place, but it did not continue.”
He did not say when the conversation took place.
“During this contact there was an acute desire of the interlocutor to talk about the position of the Europeans and there was a lack of any intention or desire to listen to our position,” Peskov said.
“Given the impossibility of exchanging views, the mutual dialogue has not developed.”
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov, Writing by Felix Light; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Mark Trevelyan)
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