Putin: Russia Ready to Work with Any New UK Prime Minister

MOSCOW  – Russia intends to work with any new UK prime minister who will also be ready to cooperate, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with anchorman of the program “Vesti v Subbotu” (“News on Saturday”) Sergei Brilyov on Rossiya 1 TV Channel.

Moscow also hopes that London will listen to the wishes of its own people about interaction with Russia, Putin said.

“We will treat this [the results of the election of the UK prime minister] with respect and we will work with all who want to work with us,” the Russian leader said.

“When I met with business people, the British business wants to work and expand its presence on the Russian market,” Putin noted.

“I hope that the country’s [the UK] political leadership will respond correspondingly, understanding and being aware of this,” he added.

Putin declined to speak in favor of any of the candidates for the post of the UK prime minister. “The candidate who will be elected by the party will be the prime minister. We will work with any person,” Putin said.

The Russian president said he was bewildered over the UK system of electing the head of the Cabinet of Ministers.

“They seem to poke a finger at us all the time over the democratic processes in Russia, the electoral law and so on and so forth. But let’s look at the method of bringing actually the country’s top person, the top person of the executive branch to the supreme power in Great Britain… Is this done through general elections? No. This is done with the help of the party’s gathering. This is, of course, strange for me, honestly speaking. But such is the British system,” the Russian president said.

On May 24, UK Prime Minister Theresa May announced her resignation from the post of the Conservative Party leader and subsequently from the post of the head of the Cabinet of Ministers after the election of the party’s new leader as she had failed to implement the country’s exit from the European Union.

The elections of the Conservative Party’s new leader will be held in late July and before that May will remain the country’s prime minister. The former UK Foreign Secretary, 55-year-old Boris Johnson, and his successor to this post, the current head of the Foreign Office, 52-year-old Jeremy Hunt, are the candidates for her post.

TASS

R.S