Russia's Lavrov Threatens Retaliation If Sanctions Imposed On Moscow

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has threatened unidentified retaliation against the UK should the Johnson gov't decide to impose sanctions on Moscow.

• Russo-British relations remain at a low ebb. Much worse relations between the two than Moscow has with any other European power.
• Incidents of enemies of President Putin being poisoned on UK territory (Alexander Litvineko in 2006 and Sergei and Yulia Skripal in 2018) remain fresh in the memory in Westminster, making any substantial rapprochement between the two sides unlikely in the short-to-medium term.
• Given the small number of Russian goods purchased in UK, and UK not being overly reliant on Russian gas, the most likely form of Russian retaliation would come in the form of cyberattacks on UK gov't systems and critical infrastructure. Ukraine and the Baltic states have already experienced significant cyberattacks believed to have originated in Russia. The FCA has already instructed banks to seek to strengthen cyber defences in anticipation of a potential hack from Russian agents.