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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Pjotr Sauer and Shaun Walker

How Britain replaced the US as Russia’s villain of choice

Keir Starmer and Volodymyr Zelenskyy walk together.

In recent years, Britain has become the villain of choice in Moscow’s eyes. It has been accused of plotting drone strikes on Russian airfields, blowing up the Nord Stream pipeline, directing “terrorist” raids inside Russia, and even abetting last year’s gruesome Islamic State concert attack in Moscow.

This week, a new charge was added to the pile: Russian authorities claimed that British intelligence had tried and failed to lure Russian pilots into defecting to the west.

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