UK For`n Secr, RF leaders seek to ``unfreeze`` relations.

MOSCOW, October 13 (Itar-Tass) - Sergei Lavrov, Russian Minister of
Foreign Affairs, and William Hague, British Secretary of State for Foreign
and Commonwealth Affairs, meet here on Wednesday with a view to
"unfreezing" bilateral relations.
The fact that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will receive the
British guest "for a conversation" on Wednesday may serve as a kind of
serious positive signal in this respect. This has been confirmed by the
Kremlin press service.
The Russian Minister spoke Tuesday about readiness to remove all
irritants in the dialogue with London. "Russia is ready to unfreeze
relations. We expressed readiness for this long ago. We see an abnormal
situation developed in our relations," Lavrov said.
At the same time the Russian Foreign Minister pointed out that "there
is no need to speak about a reset on the part of Russia". "This situation
emerged not at our initiative," he added.
William Hague, too, prior to the present trip, also expressed
readiness to work on an improvement of bilateral relations and also
expressed hope that, in due course, the sides would be able to achieve a
certain improvement of UK-Russia relations which had been no easy ones in
recent years. He said that while in Moscow he would seek to make a
beginning of this process.
Analysts believe that such statements are rather reassuring after a
series of tense moments in relations between Moscow and London,
specifically after the closure of most of British Council offices in the
territory of the Russian Federation in 2008, as well as the scandal
involving Alexander Litvinenko case.
At the same time analysts point out that London continues to maintain
a rather strong stand on the latest issue, demanding the extradition of
the chief suspect -- Andrei Lugovoi. In recent days a UK Foreign Office
official made public a position that Britain wants to improve relations
with Russia but that headway towards this goal will be limited until that
issue is settled.
Notwithstanding that, expert opinion is that the plans of new UK Prime
Minister David Cameron to "reset" relations with Moscow so as not to miss
an opportunity to participate in trade-and-economic projects in Russian
provide a chance for a "thaw" in Russia-UK relations.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko emphasized,
"Despite a certain decrease in cumulative British investments in Russia,
Britain remains our important trade-and-economic partner and one of main
foreign investors in the Russian Economy. We note the appreciable level of
the presence of British businesses in the Russian economy, and an active
dynamism of trade between our two countries".
"The remaining problems in bilateral relations should not hinder the
development of interaction in all areas where this appears possible," the
diplomat added.
The present visit to Russia will be the first one for William Hague,
49, since he was appointed Foreign Secretary in May in the UK's new
coalition government. He visited the Russian capital as Foreign Secretary
in the "shadow Cabinet" of the Conservatives in January 2010 to meet with
Sergei Lavrov.