MOSCOW, April 2. /TASS/. London’s request to declare activities related to Russia is sheer madness and the height of intellectual decline, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
The diplomat referred to Britain’s intention to introduce an "enhanced" control regime against Russia as part of the future Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS).
"This means that now any person carrying out any activity in Britain related to state and government Russian structures will have to register in a special register. Otherwise, they face up to five years in prison," Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel.
According to Zakharova, the new rules are "truly absurd."
"The intellectual inferiority that has afflicted the ruling class of Albion has reached its apogee. The heirs of Britain’s great representatives of past eras, soldiers who fought against Nazism and veterans of the Second World War, are now digging in the mud, hysterically looking for connections with Russia. One could certainly expect something more serious from London," she said.
Zakharova posed several questions to Britain, including whether the British World War II veterans who received Ushakov medals and Victory Jubilee medals for their role in Arctic convoys would be required to register as Russian agents.
"Will the Arctic convoys museum be registered as a ‘Russian residency’? Will the Belfast Museum Ship, located directly on the Thames in London and reopened after restoration in 2010, be classified as a Russian naval base?" she demanded.
"And finally, how should we view His Majesty King Charles III, who was crowned under the shadow of Yelizaveta Fyodorovna in Westminster? A bas-relief of the Russian Grand Duchess was installed on the abbey facade above the entrance in 1998. Will Charles have to register as a Kremlin agent in a simplified manner, or will he join his subjects in the famous British queues?".