Russia criticized Britain on Wednesday for describing it as an aggressor and said British Prime Minister Theresa May was more interested in public discourse than on dealing with the real dangers facing the West, reports Reuters.
A spokesman for the British Ministry of Defense said that Britain sent two Typhoon fighters on Monday to intercept Russian aircraft near the UK airspace in the latest incident in which British troops were deployed due to fears of a Russian military incursion.
When asked to comment on the maneuvers, a spokesman for the Russian embassy in London described the statements of the British Ministry of Defense as part of a public relations exercise aimed at undermining Russia’s image.
“We consider these statements and the like as public relations training aimed at consolidating some assumptions about Russia as an aggressor,” the embassy said in a statement.
“There has been no incursion into the UK airspace and no Russian aircraft has been forced to land or even change course,” the statement said. “Russian aircraft are conducting routine flights in international airspace.”
Relations between Russia and Britain are tense. Last year, Mai was accused of military aggression by Moscow and in December British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said there was ample evidence that Russia was interfering in foreign elections.
The Kremlin, restored under Vladimir Putin, denies some international influence lost as the Soviet Union collapses, intervening in elections in the West. He says there is a state of anti-Russian hysteria sweeping the United States and Europe.