Memoir Of A Regular Guy In An Irregular Job, A Misfit In Moscow By Ian Proud, Shines A Spotlight On The Collapse Of British Diplomacy In Russia

On The Table Read Magazine, “the best book magazine in the UK“, A Misfit In Moscow: How British Diplomacy In Russia Failed, 2014-2019 by Ian Proud offers a behind-the-scenes look at the slow-motion car crash of UK-Russia relations.

A Misfit In Moscow

In Ian Proud’s personal memoir, A Misfit in Moscow: How British Diplomacy in Russia Failed, 2014-2019, he shares how from 2013 to 2023, during his role within HM Diplomatic Service, work shifted from strengthening economic relations with Moscow to authorising half of the UK’s sanctions against Russia following the outbreak of war in Ukraine. One of the Foreign Office’s most experienced crisis managers, Ian played the lead role in efforts to keep the British Embassy in Moscow afloat after the mass diplomatic expulsions that followed the 2018 Salisbury nerve agent attack.

This mesmerising and entertaining book shares the realities of being at the coalface of geopolitical diplomacy, with a look at the ‘behind-the-scenes’ reality of the UK’s relationship with Moscow over the last decade and more. While geopolitics become more unfathomable by the day, self acknowledged ‘regular guy’ Ian Proud takes readers into a world very few are privy to, demystifying international relations.

British government pronouncements since Russia’s 24 February 2022 invasion of Ukraine have been resolute yet self-congratulatory, with the UK leading the way among western allies in providing Ukraine with the support it needs. Putin’s regime is globally isolated as never before, the Russian economy is crumbling under unprecedented sanctions. But is that really true?

How engaged was the Conservative government in efforts to prevent conflict in Ukraine after tensions with Russia ramped up ten years ago? Have any of the eight Foreign Secretaries since 2014 altered Putin’s calculus? Have western sanctions really worked? And does ‘the best diplomatic service in the world’ have the skills to understand and outsmart Russia?

From seeing Putin in Northern Ireland in 2013, to living through the expulsion of British diplomats from Moscow in 2018, then authorising sanctions against Russia in 2022, Ian Proud casts a sceptical eye over these questions.

In a compelling and entertaining way, Proud looks at the slow-motion car crash of UK-Russia relations, enabling the lay person to understand why a much more powerful ‘west’ has emboldened Putin through an absence of strategy and an over-reliance on economic sanctions, and how that fuelled Putin’s resentment towards the west and contributed to the gradual descent into war in Ukraine.

A Misfit in Moscow offers a brilliant insight into working for the UK Foreign Office, and a comprehensive and comprehendible account of how far off track UK foreign policy towards Russia has drifted, through the constantly revolving door of British Foreign Secretaries over the past decade.  He paints a worrying image of a British Foreign Office that has been progressively weakened by successive governments and lacks the expertise to understand and engage with modern Russia on the most pressing issues. It showcases Ian’s ascendency from humble working class beginnings (and just two ‘O’ levels), to a senior diplomatic role at the British Embassy in Moscow and becoming the UK government’s most prolific authoriser of sanctions against Russia.

Ian Proud

Ian Proud was a member of HM Diplomatic Service from 1999 to 2023. Ian organised the 2013 G8 Summit in Northern Ireland which marked Vladimir Putin’s last visit to the UK.

From July 2014 to February 2019 he was posted to the British Embassy in Moscow where he advised UK Ministers on sanctions against Russia. He was also Chair of the Russia Crisis Committee, Director of the Diplomatic Academy for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and Vice-Chairman of the Board of the Anglo-American School of Moscow.

Ian speaks Russian and Thai, and a smattering of other languages to varying degrees. He is married with two children, and lives in the rolling North Downs of Hampshire, England.

Find more from Ian Proud now:

Website: https://www.prouddiplomat.com/

Signed Copies: https://www.prouddiplomat.com/a-misfit-in-moscow

Kindle: https://amzn.to/3V3etOS

Paperback: https://amzn.to/3P8dEka

Twitter: https://twitter.com/proud_diplomat

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prouddiplomat

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ian-proud-427431108

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