Robert Walter MP, leader of the UK delegation in the Council of Europe (Letters, December 11) refers to a recent report (Tory blushes deepen over activities of Conservative Friends of Russia, 1 December) as apparently saying that both Sergey Nalobin, a Russian diplomat in London, and I were instructed to build on the existing partnership between the Conservatives and Putin’s United Russia party in the Council of Europe. Thankfully, the Russian government is in no position to instruct me because I am a Conservative activist, not a Russian diplomat. Neither am I a Russian citizen. In fact, I raised my concerns about Moscow’s plans within the Conservative party, as your excellent article makes clear. Perhaps it’s because of such failure to pay attention to detail and to distinguish between friend and foe that Conservatives still vote in the Council of Europe together with United Russia, a party at the centre of vote-rigging allegations in its own country.
Sergei Cristo
Royal Earlswood Park, Surrey