LONDON, Aug. 23 -- Andrei Kelin stopped being Russia's ambassador to Britain on July 21. More than a month later, no name has gone to the Foreign Office to replace him, and the mission at Kensington Palace Gardens is being run by a charge d'affaires. Nobody disputes any of that, including the embassy that spent Sunday objecting to what was written about it.

The Times reported that the vacancy has raised concern in London about a further deterioration in relations, and that embassy staff themselves have no clear sense of when the post will be filled. The Russian mission responded with a statement to RIA Novosti that is narrower than it first appears. Nothing in the comment it had given the newspaper implied that Russia intends to downgrad...