Putin: UK-Russia relations ‘not at their best’

LONDON

Relations between Britain and Russia are “not at their best”, President Vladimir Putin told Prime Minister David Cameron at the G20 meeting in Turkey on Monday.

Recent strains between the two countries over Syria and Ukraine were acknowledged when the two leaders meet at the fringes of the summit but U.K. officials said the meeting was a “constructive, measured discussion”.

Putin reportedly thanked Cameron for sharing British intelligence suggesting Daesh may have bombed a Russian airliner that crashed shortly after taking off from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh last month.

“As far as bilateral relations are concerned, they are not at their best but there is some upturn, including through the intergovernmental commission," the TASS news agency reported Putin as saying during the meeting.

The countries are divided over the role of President Bashar al-Assad in any future Syrian administration. Britain has insisted Assad must go as part of any peace deal while Russia is Assad’s leading ally.

Speaking at a news conference after the meeting, Cameron said he had urged Putin “to work with the international community to support a transition in Syria, away from President Assad and his ruthless brutality”.

He added the countries need to find a way to end the Syrian conflict and combat Daesh.

Earlier Monday, Cameron appeared to suggest there was flexibility in Britain’s position on Assad.

He told BBC radio: “The disagreement has been that we think Assad should go at once and obviously Russia has taken a different view and we have to find a settlement where Assad leaves and there is a government that brings Syria together.

“We mustn't let the gap between us be the altar on which this country of Syria is slaughtered.”

However, The Guardian newspaper reported that Russia had proposed allowing Assad to stand in post-conflict elections in Syria while Britain had not changed its view that he must stand down.