Westminster Russia Forum (WRF) was a UK-wide voluntary organisation, which aimed to promote improved relations with Russia.

History

The forum originally launched as Conservative Friends of Russia in 2012. Richard Royal was Chair of the group that described itself as "an organisation created for those with an interest in Russian politics, business, history and culture, with the aim of strengthening relations between the British and Russian communities and informing political decision making within both countries." The group was launched in August 2012 at the Russian Embassy in London. Matthew Elliott was a founding member. The group's launch gained mixed reviews in the media from proponents and opponents of the conservatives, with some journalists questioning its neutrality. The group had several notable Parliamentarians on its board, including former Defence and Foreign Secretary Sir

Malcolm Rifkind Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind (born 21 June 1946) is a British politician who served in the cabinets of Margaret Thatcher and John Major from 1986 to 1997, and most recently as chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament from 2 ...

as its Honorary President, and

John Whittingdale Sir John Flasby Lawrance Whittingdale (born 16 October 1959) is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Maldon (and its predecessors) since 1992 and Shadow Minister for Health and Social Care sin ...

MP,

Andrew Rosindell Andrew Richard Rosindell MP (; born 17 March 1966) is a British Conservative Party politician who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Romford since 2001. He has been the international director of the European Foundation, chair ...

MP,

Nigel Evans Nigel Martin Evans (born 10 November 1957) is a former British Conservative Party politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ribble Valley in Lancashire from 1992 until 2024. He was Joint Executive Secretary of the 1922 Commit ...

MP, and

Robert Buckland Sir Robert James Buckland (born 22 September 1968) is a British politician who served as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice from 2019 to 2021, and as Secretary of State for Wales from July to October 2022. A member of the Conse ...

MP among its Honorary Vice Presidents.

Activities of the Conservative Friends of Russia

The group hosted events in London and at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham in 2012. It also subsidised its members to attend an event featuring international lawyers discussing the

Pussy Riot Pussy Riot is a Feminism in Russia, Russian feminist protest and performance art group based in Moscow that became popular for its provocative punk rock music which later turned into a more accessible style. Founded in the fall of 2011 by the th ...

incident, and hosted a debate on the

US Presidential Election The election of the president and vice president of the United States is an indirect election in which citizens of the United States who are registered to vote in one of the fifty U.S. states or in Washington, D.C., cast ballots not directl ...

and its impact upon the relationship between the two countries. It was active in the campaign calling on the UK Foreign Office to allow British Arctic Veterans of World War Two to receive the Russian

Ushakov Medal The Medal of Ushakov () is a state decoration of the Russian Federation that was retained from the awards system of the USSR post 1991. Award history The Medal of Ushakov was a Soviet Union, Soviet military award created on 3 March 1944 by deci ...

. On Remembrance Day 2012 it organised a letter signed by thirty two Members of Parliament demanding the veterans be allowed the medal. In December 2012 it claimed victory in its campaign (as the newly formed Westminster Russia Forum as the Prime Minister

David Cameron David William Donald Cameron, Baron Cameron of Chipping Norton (born 9 October 1966) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016. Until 2015, he led the first coalition government in the UK s ...

announced that a new medal would be created.

Controversy

On 23 November 2012, the group publicly attacked the then chairman of the All-party parliamentary group (APPG) on Russia, Labour MP

Chris Bryant Sir Christopher John Bryant (born 11 January 1962) is a British politician and former Anglican priest who has served as Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Rhondda and Ogmore (UK Parliament constituency), Rhondda ...

, through the publication of a press release featuring a 10-year old picture, extracted from a dating website, depicting the MP in underwear. The press release was coincidental with the chair of the All-party parliamentary group on Russia being due for renewal. Shortly afterwards,

Sir Malcolm Rifkind Sir Malcolm Leslie Rifkind (born 21 June 1946) is a British politician who served in the cabinets of Margaret Thatcher and John Major from 1986 to 1997, and most recently as chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament from 2 ...

, who had served as a minister under

Prime Ministers A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but rat ...

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...

and

John Major Sir John Major (born 29 March 1943) is a British retired politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997. Following his defeat to Ton ...

, and was then chairman of the

Intelligence and Security Committee The Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament (ISC) is a statutory joint committee of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, appointed to oversee the work of the UK intelligence community. The committee was established in 1994 by the ...

, resigned from the group, saying he had been unhappy for some time about the group's behaviour and "political direction". At the end of November 2012 it emerged that the group's key contact at the Russian Embassy in London was First Secretary

Sergey Nalobin Sergey Nalobin (born 1979) is a Russian diplomat, a Deputy Director of the Information and Press Department of the Russian MFA. Early life and family Sergey Nalobin was born in Tyumen. His father is Nikolai Nalobin, a former KGB agent and later ...

, the son of a

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

/ FSB general, whose brother also served in the FSB. Nalobin invited the group to hold its launch party in August in the

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

garden of the Russian ambassador, Alexander Yakovenko.

Renaming

The group's Board lost all of its Conservative MPs amid allegations of being too close to the Russian authorities and it was rebranded as the Westminster Russia Forum, a

non-partisan Nonpartisanship, also known as nonpartisanism, is a lack of affiliation with a political party and a lack of political bias. While an ''Oxford English Dictionary'' definition of ''partisan'' includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., ...

group, which claims to promote an open platform to debate various issues such as international diplomacy, energy security and internal political systems. The group was officially launched in late 2012 and has since gone on to host numerous events throughout the UK, covering a variety of topics such as

LGBT rights in Russia Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in Russia face significant legal and social challenges not experienced by non-LGBTQ residents. Although sexual activity between consenting adults of the same sex is legal, homosexua ...

, with guest speakers

Peter Tatchell Peter Gary Tatchell (born 25 January 1952) is an Australian-born British human rights campaigner, best known for his work with LGBT social movements. Tatchell was selected as the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party's Parliament of the United Kingdo ...

and Claire Harvey.

Activities

The group successfully campaigned to see British World War II veterans of the

Arctic Convoy The Arctic convoys of World War II were oceangoing convoys which sailed from the United Kingdom, Iceland, and North America to northern ports in the Soviet Union – primarily Arkhangelsk (Archangel) and Murmansk in Russia. There were 78 convoys ...

campaign be awarded their

s by the Russian Government in 2013. The campaign included a letter signed by 32 Members of Parliament which was submitted to the Honours and Decorations (HD) Committee on Remembrance Day, requesting that the veterans be rewarded with a medal in recognition of the part they played in the vital Arctic Convoy missions throughout the Second World War.

References

External links

Westminster Russia Forum (WRF) website
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161026234502/http://westminster-russia.org.uk/ , date=26 October 2016
Interview with Richard Royal
, 11 July 2013 2012 establishments in the United Kingdom Russia–United Kingdom relations Organisations based in the City of Westminster Organizations established in 2012