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Tony Blair wanted Vladimir Putin at ‘top table’ while he was PM despite officials’ fears | Politics News


Tony Blair wants Vladimir Putin to have a seat on the international “top table” during his time as prime minister, according to newly released official records.

The Prime Minister of Labor from 1997 to 2007 believing that the Russian president was in fact a “patriotic Russian” and that it was important to encourage him to accept Western values, articles were released to the National Archives shows.

However, officials expressed concern that he was showing a return to Cold War attitudes and questioned whether he could be trusted.

In 2001, about a year after KGB officer lieutenant Mr. Putin As president, a No 10 internal briefing titled “Putin’s Progress” raised concerns, including the resurgence of Russian espionage.

“Despite Putin’s passionate rhetoric about close ties between Russia and Britain, Russian intelligence efforts against British targets remain high,” it wrote.

“The Russian intelligence presence in the UK is at a Cold War level and they continue to try to send aggressive and hostile officers to counter British interests around the world.”

The document, which gives a list of assurances Putin made to Mr Blair during their meetings at international summits, turned out to be false.

These include backing a Western hard line in dealing with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and pledging that Moscow will stop supplying Iran’s nuclear program.

Newspapers said Mr Putin had thanked Mr Blair for his offer of assistance following the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk, with all 118 of its crew missing, but said Russian officials had thwarted the word. this proposal while spreading false rumors that it had sunk in a collision with a British submarine.

In a very relevant memo today, given Russia Invades UkraineMr Putin also told Mr Blair he did not want to be seen as “anti-NATO” but his defense minister later warned NATO that any further expansion would be “a major political mistake” requiring Moscow must take “appropriate steps”.

Russian President Vladimir Putin participates in the launch of the Titan-Polymer plant via videoconference in St.  Petersburg, Russia, Wednesday, December 28, 2022. (Mikhail Klimentyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
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Russian President Putin

The note was part of a series of brief notes for Blair’s foreign policy adviser John Sawers ahead of a meeting with senior officials in the new George Bush administration ahead of the prime minister’s first meeting with the new president. US president.

Mr Blair compared Mr Putin to wartime French president Charles de Gaulle during his talks with then vice president Dick Cheney at Camp David.

“The prime minister describes him as a patriotic Russian, deeply aware that Russia has lost respect in the world. Describing him as a Russian de Gaulle would be misleading, but he also has thinking the same thing,” the meeting notes said.

“He (Mr. Blair) understands that Putin has a low approval rating in the US. But he thinks it is better to put Putin at the top and encourage Putin to approach Western attitudes and economic models. Western economy.”

And despite tensions with the Russian president, the records show how diplomacy rules, with a No 10 official informing Mr Blair on a trip to Moscow in 2001 that he had to give the president a set of cufflinks. The new silver 10 lightning bolt was released for his birthday.

Mandela’s intervention ‘not helpful’

Former South African President Nelson Mandela is welcomed by Prime Ministers Tony Blair and John Prescott (left) at the Labor Party Conference in Brighton.
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Nelson Mandela is welcomed by Tony Blair and John Prescott (left) at a Labor Party Conference.

The files also reveal tensions between Mr Blair and Nelson Mandela, as well as with his cabinet, particularly Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

The files show that officials at Number 10 were concerned that efforts by former South African president Mandela to act as a mediator between Libya’s leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi over the Lockerbie bombing were “unhelpful” “.

Mr Mandela, as president, helped broker the deal that ultimately led to two Libyan intelligence agents appearing before a Scottish court over the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over the village of Lockerbie of Scotland, killing 270 people.

But after his presidency ended and one of the defendants was found guilty in 2001, Mr. Mandela tried to intervene as Gaddafi pushed for international sanctions on Libya to be lifted.

Anna Wechsberg of private office No. 10 noted: “Mandela clearly sees herself as a mediator between the prime minister and Gaddafi. This is hardly helpful.”

Days apart ‘quite terrible’

As for the friction with Mr Blair’s cabinet, notes revealed that not a single senior minister enjoyed the annual “away days” held in the Prime Minister’s hometown of Checkers.

Gordon Brown and Tony Blair at the 2007 consignment box
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Gordon Brown and Tony Blair at the 2007 consignment box

David Milliband, then 10th special counsel, complained that no other company ran them in such a messy fashion.

“The tradition of introducing TB/GB (Tony Blair/Gordon Brown) and then a sporadic comment from each cabinet member is pretty gruesome – and not very helpful,” he said in a memo.

The files show Mr Blair’s chief of staff asked Mr Brown to lead the 1998 economic meeting, writing: “You said you didn’t like this, but I don’t see how you could avoid it. .”

Mr Blair replied: “No, we should start with a general political discussion that I will lead, followed by the afternoon economics.”

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