UK's Johnson visits Moscow amid strain in ties with Russia
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British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson visited Moscow Friday, seeking to encourage cooperation on global security challenges despite strained relations between Russia and the West.
Johnson is the first foreign secretary to visit Moscow in more than five years, reflecting bitter tensions between the two countries over a range of issues, including the 2006 poisoning death of ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko and the Ukrainian crisis.
"It's important to talk about these things and to be frank about them and to accept that they are obstructions in our relationship at the moment," Johnson said at the start of his talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov. "But we mustn't let ourselves be defined by these problems."
Lavrov also noted that the relations between the two countries are at a "very low point." He emphasized that while British and other Western officials like to publicly air their grievances about Russia, Russia would prefer to "discuss mutual concerns face-to-face, not through microphones."
