📺 Watch Ambassador Andrei Kelin's interview with Channel 4 presenter Cathy Newman (25 March 2026)

Key talking points:

• Unprovoked and reckless aggression against Iran should be stopped immediately. It has enormous consequences not only for the Middle East, but for the whole world. As soon as the parties involved stop it and return to the diplomatic negotiations which have been interrupted, it will be the best outcome.

• There should be a normal conversation between the US and Iran on a settlement, on finding a certain balance of interests and a balance of understanding on which they can immediately stop military action.

• We stand for a comprehensive model of peace in the Persian Gulf, and we have developed a concept of such comprehensive peace, in which the interests of every country in the region will be taken into account, including Iran.

• The US made two underestimations: first, that Iran would give up and that the regime would change after the first strikes. The second underestimation, or rather a complete miscalculation, was that there would be no economic consequences. Both were wrong.

• The US needs this peace deal even more than Iran, because Iran is now fighting for its cause, and what the U.S. is doing there is a big question, since no clear goals have been defined, and no exit strategy has been established.

• If someone in the UK believes that Ukraine will have a chance to win something, this is a kind of self-inflicted hypnosis. Ukraine is losing. And to invest in a losing country — that’s a grave mistake.

Watch the interview on our YouTube channel

🏴‍☠️ Британское правительство объявило об очередном глубоко враждебном шаге в отношении России – намерении захватывать торговые суда, связанные с нашей страной, в британских территориальных водах.

В последнее время официальный Лондон хотел убедить нас, что не заинтересован в эскалации, в частности, когда пытался отрицать свою причастность к ударам ракетами своего производства по гражданским объектам и населению в Брянске, которые совершил киевский режим.

Факты говорят об обратном. Безрассудные заявления о намерениях атаковать российские торговые суда прямо свидетельствуют о стремлении к обострению и без того напряжённой обстановки в сфере безопасности и международной торговли. Отрицать это невозможно.

Не имеет значения, в какую правовую форму британское правительство пытается облечь эти акты пиратства. В их основе лежат противоречащие международному праву односторонние санкции. Важны умысел и цель – нанести нашей стране побольше вреда. Однако пострадает от таких действий не столько российская экономика, сколько те страны, которые сейчас остро нуждаются в энергоносителях.

Заявленные цели и выбранный для объявления момент не оставляют сомнений, что без участия британской стороны не обошлось и наращивание украинских атак на российскую энергетическую инфраструктуру.

Лейбористское правительство в полной мере несёт ответственность вместе с США и Израилем за кризис на энергетическом рынке и рост цен в том числе для британских потребителей.

❗️ У таких действий есть последствия. Навигация становится небезопасной в британских водах, где любое судно может пострадать от пиратского захвата. Россия будет использовать все имеющиеся в нашем распоряжении политические, правовые и иные инструменты, в т.ч. асимметричные, для защиты наших интересов.

🏴‍☠️ The British government has announced yet another deeply hostile step against Russia — its intention to interdict merchant vessels linked to Russia in British territorial waters.

Recently, London sought to convince us that it had no interest in escalation, particularly when it attempted to deny any involvement in missile strikes of its own manufacture on civilian targets and the population in Bryansk, carried out by the Kiev regime.

The facts tell a different story. Reckless statements about plans to attack Russian merchant ships are plain evidence of a desire to inflame an already tense situation in the spheres of security and international trade. This cannot be denied.

It matters not what legal form the British government attempts to give these acts of piracy. They rest upon unilateral sanctions that contravene international law.

What matters are the intent and the aim — namely to inflict as much damage as possible on our country. Yet it is not so much the Russian economy that will suffer from these actions, but rather those nations that are currently in acute need of energy resources.

The stated objectives and the timing of this announcement leave no doubt that the British side has also been involved in the escalation of Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure.

The Labour government bears full responsibility, alongside the United States and Israel, for the crisis on the energy markets and for rising prices, including for British consumers.

Such actions have consequences. Navigation in British waters is becoming unsafe, where any vessel may fall victim to piratical seizure.

❗️ Russia will employ all political, legal, and other instruments at its disposal, including asymmetric measures, to defend its interests.