Two British Peers Attend Russian Ambassador's Party in London

Two British peers, Lord Richard Balfe and Lord Robert Skidelsky, have attended a party in London organised by Andrei Kelin, the Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom.

As The Guardian reports, the party was held on 12  June on the occasion of Russia Day [marking the creation of a Russian independent of the Soviet Union – ed.]. It was attended by 50 people in total, including Russian Embassy staff, foreign diplomats and several Britons.

Kelin gave a speech at the event in which he tried to justify his country's invasion of Ukraine.

Kelin reportedly said "in order to develop normally, Russia must first deal with significant threats to its security."

The ambassador also accused Britain of a "big strategic miscalculation" by taking a confrontational approach to Moscow.

Lord Balfe confirmed to the Guardian that he had attended the event, where he said he had a brief conversation with the Russian military attache.

According to him, he believes that the war will end in negotiations and Ukraine will give part of its territory to Russia.

Balfe called Ukraine a "mess of a country," which was allegedly "knocked together by Churchill and Stalin towards the end of world war two."

He added that he believed that "Crimea is most definitely Russian," and that Moscow allegedly has legitimate claims to Donetsk and Luhansk.

Balfe believes that negotiations should concern a land corridor to Crimea.

Skidelsky claimed he was opposed to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but attended because "I wanted to show my respect and affection for the Russian people on their national day, especially in these circumstances".

Skidelsky issued a letter shortly after Moscow's invasion that criticised the action but also questioned why the West had not made a pledge that NATO would not expand its membership to Ukraine. He was also a non-executive board member of a Russian oil company, Russneft, between 2016 and 2021.

Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder attended an event at the Russian embassy on 9 May with the leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany, Tino Chrupalla, while many other German politicians did not attend the event in protest against the Russian war in Ukraine.

After that, the wife of former German Chancellor Soyeon Schröder-Kim, who was also at the embassy, lost her job at NRW.Global Business.