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Russian Officials Hopeful for Warmer Relations After Johnson Appointment

Frank-Walter Steinmeier made clear in comments to the Bild am Sonntag newspaper published Thursday that Johnson must now adjust to new demands.

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In a sign of the difficulty Mr Johnson may face in building bridges with opposite numbers around the world, French foreign minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told Europe 1 radio: “I am not at all anxious about Boris Johnson, but you know his style, his method during the campaign”.

“We can not afford a long period of uncertainty”.

A one-time chairman of the Conservative Party, Mr Davis was favoured by some to become its leader in 2005, only to lose out to Mr David Cameron.

May takes over from David Cameron, who resigned after Britain’s vote to leave the European Union.

Mr Letwin said he had left “the beginnings of groundwork” for his successor, new Brexit minister David Davis, describing him as a “jolly tough cookie”.

Challenged over whether Mr Johnson was ready to take over responsibility for intelligence agency MI6, Chancellor Philip Hammond pointed out that he would receive plentiful support from the “highly skilled and competent” civil servants in the “well-oiled machine” of the Foreign Office. It also reinforces a promise she made outside 10 Downing St. on Wednesday: “We will make Britain a country that works not for a privileged few, but for every one of us”.

Cameron said Wednesday it was the “greatest honor” of his life to serve as prime minister.

Ahead of last month’s referendum on European Union membership, Johnson compared the bloc’s aims with those of Adolf Hitler.

However, the Guardian speculates that with Davis negotiating the details of Brexit, and Fox in charge of worldwide trade, the former London mayor is likely to have a less sweeping role than previous foreign secretary.

“The burden of his current position will undoubtedly, certainly, lead him to use a bit different rhetoric, of a more diplomatic nature”, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday.

May won the leadership battle and quickly sacked Gove, who is now seen as treacherous by many Conservatives. Foreign secretaries in Britain have traditionally stayed in a supporting role, refraining from saying anything remotely off-the-cuff or contentious — but that may be a stretch too far for Johnson.

Justice secretary Michael Gove, a leading Brexit supporter and her rival in the Tory leadership race, was sent packing along with Osborne, and the education and culture ministers. First, May will sit with Angela Merkel to establish how is it possible to restrict immigration from other E.U. countries while not limiting access to British business to the European common market.

Philip Hammond says he will meet with the head of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, on Thursday to “assess where we are”.

May has said she may not trigger Article 50 for months but many officials expect tentative talks to start soon on how negotiations might work to forge a new relationship between Britain and the EU.

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Hammond offered calming tones to the markets and the public in a series of interviews the morning after taking office. When we pass new laws we will listen not to the mighty, but to you.

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