Britain hopes new Russia president will lift ties

By Conor Sweeney

MOSCOW, April 16 (Reuters) - Britain hopes to make a fresh start in its difficult relations with Russia after Dmitry Medvedev becomes president next month, London's ambassador to Moscow said on Wednesday.

But Anthony Brenton and other British officials said at a British investment conference in Moscow the political rows, which have involved diplomatic expulsions and angry rhetoric from both capitals, had not hurt business growth.

"As for the political difficulties themselves, we very much hope to get over, over the next few months, with the change of president here and with the will on both sides, I think, to try and get past other problems," Brenton said.

Andrew Cahn, chief executive UK Trade and Investment, said British exports to Russia were up 57 percent last year and a quarter of all companies floated on the London stock market originated from Russia.

"I had a number of high level meetings in the past few days and in none of them has there been a mention of the political relationship and we focussed entirely on the business and economic relationship," he said.

Outside the energy and legal sectors British firms lag behind counterparts from Germany, France and Italy, Cahn said, but put it down to a perception in Britain that Russia was a tough place to do business rather than the diplomatic climate.

Brenton said he didn't believe difficulties facing oil firm BP's BP.L Russian joint venture TNK-BP were linked to international politics, saying the company had blamed 'internal factors' for them, rather than the fact they were half British.

The Russian security service has charged a TNK-BP employee with commercial espionage and raided its offices.