By Oliver JJ Lane AUGUST 26, 2026

Former Russian deputy foreign minister Andrei Fedorov, now billed as a Kremlin insider and frequently appearing talking head on Russian television, has told British state broadcaster the BBC that his president Vladimir Putin is under political, military, and public pressure to retaliate against the United Kingdom’s military support for Kyiv.

Speaking to the BBC’s Newsnight programme, Fedorov said armaments factories in the United Kingdom are a particular target for the hoped-for Russian attacks, which he said could be quasi-military or by computer hackers, but in any case would be by actors at arms-length from Moscow with plausible deniability. Referring to London’s continuing support for Ukraine, and following the announcement on Monday that the UK would be handing over blueprints to a bunker-buster missile to Ukraine so they could produce their own, Fedorov said the country was opening as “Pandora’s box”.bar.”