Indeed, Russia's Foreign Minister said yesterday his country wants to return to normal relations with Britain following this week's round of tit-for-tat expulsions. In a rapidly escalating dispute, the Kremlin decided to halt travel by government officials and to expel four diplomats from the UK embassy in Moscow in retaliation for a similar move by British Foreign Secretary earlier this week.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown defended his Government's position in the dispute with Russia, which is refusing to extradite the chief suspect in the fatal polonium poisoning last year of Litvinenko, Andrei Lugovoy, to face trial in the UK. Speaking during a visit to Paris for talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Mr Brown said: "We had to take difficult decisions in relation to the Litvinenko case, and we will not tolerate a situation where a British citizen is assassinated on British soil. Our first duty is to protect our citizens and to prevent there being lawlessness in the streets of London".
Russia also said it would stop counter-terrorism co-operation with the UK, though Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin characterised this as a response to Britain's decision to suspend co-operation with Federal Security Bureau (FSB). Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov suggested that the Kremlin wishes to see a line drawn under the affair, stating that "Russia is interested in having relations with Britain brought back to normal".
Thursday's expulsions were widely seen as a sign that Russian President Vladimir Putin did not want to escalate the dispute, as they exactly mirrored Mr Miliband's announcement on Monday 17 July that four diplomats were being sent home from Russia's London embassy. Mr Putin made clear that he did not regard the situation as a return to Cold War enmity, describing it only as a "mini-crisis" which could be overcome, even if Downing Street joined Mr Miliband in denouncing Moscow's actions as "completely unjustified".
This new situation of tension comes as Russia's relations with much of the Western countries, including the United States, are strained over deployment of an American anti-missile system in Europe, disagreement on how best to curtail Iran's nuclear program and Kosovo's demand for independence.