February 1902 India, Muslims, and Oil Russian Foreign Minister Vladimir Nikolaevich Lamsdorff: “In Russia, Great Britain had for a century, at least, been regarded by the mass of the people as the one Power always to the fore in baulking at every conjuncture the national aspirations and barring the natural development and expansion of Russia.” Source: Public Records Office /FO65/1640/56: ‘Anglo-Japanese agreements’. Sir Charles Scott to the Marquess of Lansdowne, St Petersburg, February 17, 1902