The UK’s former ambassador to Russia Tony Brenton has predicted normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries within “a few months,” explaining it by the need to maintain high-level contacts, The Independent reported.

Speaking to The Independent, Brenton suggested that the waters would be calmed within “few months,” and the diplomatic hostility between Russia and the West would “erode away.”

“As part of our sanctions, we are not going to have any high-level contacts with the Russians for a while. This will begin to erode in a few months because you need to have high-level contacts on things,” the media outlet cited him as saying.

Brenton, who had an experience of dealing with the aftermath of a similar crisis in the relations between Moscow and London following Alexander Litvinenko’s poisoning in 2006, stressed that Britain would “need the Russians to help us” in various situations.

During his tenure, the former ambassador has recalled, fifteen British Royal Navy personnel from HMS Cornwall were accused of having entered Iranian waters and were held captive; it was Russia’s influence over Tehran that helped release the sailors.

“Things like that happen quite regularly and at various levels we will need the Russians to help us,” he said.

Furthermore, Brenton proceeded to say that despite the fact that the relations between Moscow and the West worsened following Crimea’s reunification with Russia and the introduction of anti-Russia sanctions by Europe and the US, the situation gradually improved.

“The interesting parallel here is that the West was going to ‘isolate’ Russia after Ukraine and did so for a little bit, but this ended up eroding away. These high-level freezes tend to erode quite rapidly because the world has to do its business. We will be slow to resume our ties, but we will in a few months’ time as we need to get back to being able to do business with the Russians,” the British diplomat added.

Source: Sputnik