The political crisis in relations between Russia and the UK will not hinder the development of bilateral trade. At the same time, countries can switch to settlements in national currencies in the foreseeable future.. This statement was made by the trade representative of the Russian Federation in the United Kingdom, Boris Abramov. According to him, the state for the first time since 2014. sat down at the negotiating table. The defrosting of the negotiation process on the development of trade relations happened three months ago, at the height of the scandal around the poisoning of the former GRU employee Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia in British Salisbury.. "We have restored dialogue with the British Ministry of International Trade. Now, despite the deterioration of the overall political climate, at the professional and working level the dialogue between the trade mission here, between the trade section of the British Embassy and the Ministry of Economic Development in Moscow has been restored, "RIA Novosti quotes Abramov. The trade representative noted that the interests of the two countries coincide "on issues of promoting the development of bilateral trade relations in areas that are not limited to sanctions". In this area, the "British side supports cooperation". According to Abramov, a significant role in defrosting the trade dialogue was played by the upcoming withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU. "Brexit means changing the foundations on which Britain’s economic relations with other countries were built. Now they are forced to rethink how they build their cooperation with the outside world, including Russia, "the official said. So far, the volume of trade is far from record highs (about $ 12 billion in 2017. ), but both countries are interested in increasing it. The impetus for this can be a transition to the calculation in national currencies. Now there is a ready infrastructure for this, which can be used by Russian and British companies.. The case for a political decision. "The British pound is as freely convertible as the dollar and the euro. For a Russian company it costs nothing to open an account in pounds in a Russian or foreign bank. The Russian importer can also buy a pound on the Moscow Stock Exchange and pay them back, "said Abramov. He also added that at the moment Moscow and London are not conducting negotiations on specific projects.. Considering the fact that in the past four years the dialogue at the ministerial level has been completely paralyzed, now work is under way to restore the structure of cooperation. The parties exchange information about companies interested in doing business in Russia and Britain.. "In the overwhelming majority of cases, there is no negative attitude towards Russians as potential business partners..

And it inspires optimism both to us and our colleagues in the UK Department for International Trade, "the sales representative concluded. Relations between Moscow and London are complicated by the sanctions policy of the western camp, the scandal around Skripale (the British authorities accuse Russia of involvement in their poisoning) and the claims of the United Kingdom about the growing military threat allegedly caused by the Russian Federation. However, there are no barriers to economic interaction between countries..