In June 2003, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a State Visit to Britain. As Head of State, Queen Elizabeth II was deployed in her role as Britain's most senior diplomat. Along with her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and her son, Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, the Queen received Putin and his wife, Lyudmila Putina, at Buckingham Palace. The Russian President was late for the occasion by 14 minutes, an incident which, according to former Home Secretary David Blunkett, led the Queen to break protocol by making a comment about Russia's president. When Blunkett's guide dog barked upon seeing Putin, the Home Secretary apologised to the Queen for the noise. "Dogs have interesting instincts, don’t they?" the monarch replied.
Occurring roughly 12 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union and 11 years before Russia's invasion of Crimea, this footage of Putin's visit to Britain reflects a unique moment in world history - when the West was keen to bring a revived Russian Federation into the so-called rules-based international order. It captures the optimism of the decade following the end of the Cold War, as well as the infancy of the Putin regime. In the years after his reception at Buckingham Palace, tensions between Russia and Britain escalated steadily as an increasingly defiant Putin sought to reassert Russia's power on the world stage.
On 23 June 2023, Russia came to the edge of a significant domestic clash between the Putin regime and Wagner, the mercenary fighting group that has for years fought alongside Russian forces and in pursuit of Russian interests across the globe. Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin publicly threatened to topple Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu after accusing Russia of striking Wagner's base in Ukraine. In a move described by Putin as "a stab in the back" and act of national betrayal, Wagner fighters seized military facilities in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don as well as Voronezh in an apprent move towards Moscow. By the end of 24 June, however, Prigozhin had stood his Wagner fighters down to avoid "bloodshed", while the Russian state announced that Wagner troops who followed Prigozhin would not face charges. It is not clear how the Wagner rebellion and its consequences will play out in the long run.
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23 июн 2023
