"April 1, the day of jokes, laughter and fools, the British Interior and Foreign Ministries celebrated together".
This was written on her Telegram channel by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova.
Here is the full text of her statement:
They announced their intention to impose the highest, “enhanced“ level of control over Russia within the framework of the upcoming Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS). This means that now any person carrying out activities in the UK related to state and government Russian structures will have to register in a special register. Otherwise, he faces up to five years in prison.
Leaving aside the choice of date and the general degree of London's paranoid schizophrenia, I cannot help but ask a number of clarifying and guiding questions to the British side. All of them concern the citizens of the United Kingdom and its internal affairs, because the new rules are truly insane.
- Will British veterans of the Second World War, who received the "Ushakov" medals and jubilee medals of Victory for their participation in the Arctic convoys, be forced to register as Russian agents? Will medals have to be returned?
- Will the Arctic convoy museums be registered as “Russian residences“?
- Will the museum ship "Belfast", located right on the Thames in London and opened after restoration in 2010, be recognized as a naval base of the Russian Navy?
- Should the British National Space Center (NSC) in Leicester be registered as a base of the Russian Aerospace Forces?
By the way, I will tell you about this center separately. Great Britain has never had the knowledge or experience in space exploration. The NCC itself is a children's museum that tells the story of the daring flight of the confectionery factory employee Helen Sharman to the Mir station in 1991. The Soviet Union took almost all responsibility for the transfer, preparation, financing and provision of her stay in space. And by the way, will all visitors to the museum, including English schoolchildren, also be forced to register as Russian agents? After all, they will be paying for tickets to visit a space organization associated with Russia...
- Continuing with the “space“ theme: in 2015, the London Science Museum, with the support of Roscosmos, hosted the exhibition “Cosmonauts: The Birth of the Space Age“ with great success, for which the British lined up in huge queues. Does everyone have to register now?
- And what about the Mayor of London? After all, according to British ceremonial, his adjutant with a sword must wear a Moscow hat every year, named in honor of the Moscow Tsar and his ties with Moscow in the 17th century. When the Lord Mayor of London leaves his post, the swordsman takes off his hat and hands him from its secret inner pocket the key to the safe in which the City Seal of the City of London is kept. Then this key is ceremoniously handed over to the new mayor. He returns it to the owner of the sword and asks him to keep it. Are they all Kremlin agents now?
- Finally, how should we treat His Majesty King Charles III, who was crowned under the auspices of Elizabeth Feodorovna in Westminster? In 1998, a bas-relief with the image of the Russian Grand Duchess was installed on the facade above the entrance to the abbey building. Will Charles have to register as an agent of the Kremlin in a simplified manner or will he have to stand in the famous British queues on a par with his subjects?
The intellectual inferiority that affected the ruling class of Foggy Albion has reached its apogee. The heirs of British greats from bygone eras, Nazi soldiers and World War II veterans, are now digging in the dirt, hysterically searching for connections with Russia. And people expect something more serious from London.