The Ukraine crisis has claimed another victim. The Westminster Russia Forum – previously called the Conservative Friends of Russia – has just announced it will be winding up its lobbying operation here in London. As recently as last week, the group were reported to be going ahead with a ‘multilateral relations conference’, scheduled for tomorrow. But now, following a wave of cancellations, boycotts and sanctions across London and the rest of the western world, the WRF has announced it will close.
In a statement to his supporters on Tuesday, chairman Nicholas Cobb announced his resignation and that of the entire board. He said that his group had aimed ‘to promote the equitable, neutral and positive ties between the peoples of the United Kingdom, Russian Federation and wider European area’ but that ‘whilst we have had notable successes, the ultimate goal that we have pursued has failed and as such we are, with immediate effect disbanding the Westminster Russia Forum.’
Cobb, who runs an energy communications firm focused on Russia and former Soviet republics, took the opportunity to condemn the ‘unwarranted and baseless attacks’ which he claimed his group had been subjected to – ‘usually undertaken by faceless trolls.’ However in light of the ‘unwarranted, barbaric and unjustified invasion of sovereign Ukraine’ the WRF feels it has no alternative, adding that ‘we support the people of Ukraine and continue to stand with the people of Russia – this war is not in their name and we will continue to support them in their time of need.’
The group’s British organisers had often previously appear on the Russian state broadcaster, RT. It has links with a number of Conservative MPs and other senior UK political figures, hosting events with Tory parliamentarians such as Daniel Kawczynski, Caroline Nokes, John Redwood and John Whittingdale, as well as Labour’s former foreign secretary Jack Straw. Event attendees have included Carrie Johnson, the Prime Minister’s wife.
So much for glasnost, eh Vlad?
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