One of the most tragic stories of recent years has been the failure of diplomacy to avert the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The reasons for this failure involve ample blame for all the parties involved. Britain, both as the closest US ally in Western Europe and the one that has taken the hardest line against Russia before and during the Ukraine War, has a special place in this story. To discuss the record of recent British diplomacy towards Russia and in the world more generally, Anatol Lieven, director of the Eurasia Program at the Quincy Institute, is joined by Ian Proud, former British diplomat in Moscow and author of the memoir A Misfit in Moscow (2023).