The Kremlin has confirmed that Britain’s National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell held contact with Russian Presidential Aide Yuri Ushakov, but said the talks failed to develop due to a lack of interest from the UK side in hearing Russia’s position on the war in Ukraine.
«There were indeed contacts. A dialogue took place, but it did not continue,» Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. «There was an acute desire of the interlocutor to talk about the position of the Europeans and a lack of any intention to listen to our position.»
The Financial Times reported that Powell had attempted to establish a back channel with Moscow amid concerns in London and other European capitals that a second Donald Trump administration might sideline their interests in Ukraine diplomacy.
Peskov did not specify when the discussions took place, saying only that «given the impossibility of exchanging views, the mutual dialogue has not developed.»
Kursiv Uzbekistan also reports that Uzbekistan has refocused its bank privatisation agenda around Uzbek Industrial and Construction Bank (SQB, BB/Stable), a more selective approach that could become a template for other state lenders but is unlikely to produce large-scale sales soon, Fitch Ratings said.
