TL;DR: Russia has decided that the UK is Russia's enemy, and there's nothing we can do to change that as long as Putin is in power. The choice is whether to be an undefeated enemy or a defeated one. That's all the choice we get.

Excellent choice. Small piece of advice: if you get the metro into the city, remember to get the special airport return ticket. Massive pain/bit more expensive to get turned around at the barrier when you get back, especially if it's early in the morning! The smirks don't help 😂

Yes. It may well have the effect of increasing conviction rates (case-hardened judges may be more likely to convict than juries), but that’s not the motivation. It’s cost-cutting.

Now rewatch Dune with this in mind, it's a bit different when the Fremen are the UVF.