Amber Rudd - Russia's War on Ukraine

Policy Exchange is hosting a series of podcasts on Russia's invasion of Ukraine and its broader consequences.  In this episode Michael Mosbacher asks Rt Hon Amber Rudd – Home Secretary from 2016 - 2018 – about how the UK responded to the 2018 Skripral poisonings in Salisbury, whether more could have been done then, what should be done now and how Britain should respond now to Ukraine's refugee crisis. Rudd is supportive of our sanctions against Russia and thinks they should be tougher - but also argues that they are unlikely to be effective as Putin, just like Iran, is unlikely to be responsive to the effect of sanctions. Some of the questions answered by Rt Hon Amber Rudd :

• When did you learn about the Skripal poisoning? Did the news come as a shock or were we expecting that something like this might happen?

• Did the Government do enough to respond to Russia’s aggression in the aftermath of the Skripal poisoning?

• After the Litvinenko & Skripal poisonings, how concerned should we be about further Russian attacks on British soil?

• With your experience of Russia’s actions, could the West have been better prepared for Russia’s invasion? Did we sleepwalk into disaster?

• There have been a series of deaths on British soil of opponents of Putin, eg Boris Berezovsky. In light of what we now know should these cases be reopened?

• Has Brexit meant that there is less intelligence cooperation with other European countries? If there had been more such cooperation would we have been better prepared?

• Russia has been seen as an ally in the War on Terror. Was this a mistake?