Russian Ambassador to the UK Andrei Kelin reflected on the difficult world situation

“A mystery wrapped in a mystery within a mystery.” Winston Churchill famously described Russia (then the Soviet Union) in this way in 1939.

To this day, I can think of no better way to explain the complexities of trying to decipher Russia, its leadership, and its motives. The conundrum for me was reinforced again last week during my first conversation with a senior Russian official since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Before Russia invaded and annexed Crimea in 2014, I visited Russia frequently and witnessed Russia’s integration into the post-Soviet world system.

From the G8 meeting in St. Petersburg to the G20 in Moscow. From attending numerous St. Petersburg Economic Forums to sitting in the palatial Kremlin as host to oil industry chiefs and powerful man Igor Sechin. I have seen that Russia seems to be moving into the orbit of the Western economy.

But all that quickly eroded after the invasion of Crimea, which I witnessed firsthand from Kiev, where I was reporting in early 2014.

Twelve years have passed since the spring, and all cooperation has disappeared. Russia remains heavily sanctioned and ostracized by the West, remains in a bloody conflict with the West in Ukraine, and distrust is greater than at any time in the post-World War II Cold War.

So, having had the privilege of speaking with so many top Russian and Ukrainian leaders over the course of my career, my first conversation with a senior Russian official in years is always going to be a strange moment.

In fact, there was something completely surreal about the whole experience of visiting the Russian Embassy in London to speak with Ambassador Andrei Kerin.

There were times when I felt like I was in some kind of parallel reality, some kind of multiverse, disconnected from the terrifying reality of the two current geopolitical crises engulfing Europe, the Middle East, and potentially the world.

First, there was the setting for the conversation. My team and I were invited to the official residence of the Russian Ambassador at 13 Kensington Palace Gardens, also known as Harrington House. Without a doubt one of the prettiest houses on one of the prettiest streets in the prettiest district of London.

Inside, we entered the equally stunning main reception room, known as the Golden Room, through a stunning wood-paneled atrium. It was in this room that my team, working with Russian embassy officials, was preparing for the interview. Our four cameras matched the Russian team’s cameras, resulting in an “eight camera shoot.” This is a record for me with at least 4 cameras.

The Golden Room was decorated with exquisite art by several Russian artists, and front and center were two beautiful seascapes by Ivan Aivazovsky.

From the Golden Room, we were shown the adjoining Green Room and then the Winter Garden. The Winter Garden was an orangery that hosted former British Prime Ministers Churchill, Anthony Eden, and Harold Macmillan, and the rooms were decorated with their portraits.

Looking out into the backyard, a pleasant young diplomat pointed to a small grassy mound. “It’s an old air raid shelter from World War II, where legend has it that Ambassador Fedor Gusev and Churchill rushed there overnight during the raid and were forced into a well-stocked emergency basement. Maybe it’s just a legend,” he says with a smile.

Although the environment, the impeccably courteous young diplomats who catered to our every whim, and the Russians in general were perfectly hospitable, I still had to remind myself that these were representatives of the very government that had been ostracized and sanctioned by the West for provoking the biggest conflict on European territory since World War II.

Representatives of President Vladimir Putin. President Putin appears to be on a mission to rebuild Russia’s Soviet-era sphere of influence since its February 2022 all-out invasion of Ukraine, which has left hundreds of thousands dead and perhaps millions injured.

A few minutes later, I agreed to an interview with Ambassador Kellyn. He is a 68-year-old career diplomat who has been stationed in London since the end of 2019 as his Moscow attaché.

Like her attentive team, Kellyn was polite and articulate. He directly answered every question I posed, but soon after our 40-minute interview began, I realized that all the big-picture perspective he gave about the roots of the conflict and how Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his European backers were standing in the way of some sort of peace deal, I had heard before in one form or another from President Vladimir Putin, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov, and others.

I pushed back and pointed out that it was Russia that invaded Crimea, that it was Russia that broke the 1994 Budapest Memorandum that guaranteed Ukraine’s sovereignty, and that it was Russia’s extremist demands that were the biggest obstacle to a peace deal.

Kerin refuted my interpretation of the facts at every point, sticking to a well-rehearsed line of accusing the EU, the Western powers, and NATO more generally of encroaching on Russia’s sphere of influence and creating the material for the ensuing 12 years of conflict.

Regarding Iran, Mr. Kelin also refused to acknowledge that Iran’s search for highly enriched uranium (perhaps to make some sort of nuclear weapon) is the root cause of the current conflict.

On the question of whether Russia actively supports Iran, former Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov once said that Russia is not “indifferent to its own fate,” but Kerin refused to confirm any support, claiming that as a “civilian” he had no knowledge of the issue.

I can’t blame the ambassador for not answering any of my questions. Although he was a generous host, I left the long interview with very mixed feelings. From a journalist’s perspective, it was a good day. I think both journalists and interviewees were able to have solid, direct, and hopefully respectful conversations about the most important topics of the day.

But my hopes for common understanding and progress towards ending the bloody European conflict did not rise after the meeting. Even after 12 bloody years, it felt like little had changed. Although the ambassador also expressed hope that the war would end this year, the lack of understanding and common ground that could potentially end the war did not seem to be in place at all.

Russia and the West began talking again, but in a completely different language. To both, the other’s motives seemed to be a mystery, a riddle, a puzzle.