‘One freak after another’ – ex-Russian president on UK leaders

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said the new UK prime minister, Liz Truss, will continue the “tradition” started by her predecessor Boris Johnson by finishing her tenure “in disgrace.”

Truss, formerly the foreign secretary in Johnson’s Conservative government, officially became prime minister on Tuesday.

Taking to Telegram on Wednesday, Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, commented on the succession of governments in the UK: “Out goes the freak guy, in comes the freak lady.” He described the new PM as “an incompetent and mediocre thermonuclear Russophobe who has no elementary ideas about politics, history, geography, but wants to defeat Russia in everything.”

The former president added that Truss, the third female prime minister in British history, is trying to imitate the first, Margaret Thatcher, “without having even 5% of her abilities,” and hopes to address the energy crisis and rising food inflation, which are “the result of her own crazy sanctions exercises.” 

In her first statement at Downing Street, Truss claimed that the energy crisis was caused by “Putin’s war.”

“She will quarrel with everyone, fail in everything, and leave in disgrace, like her predecessor, shaggy Boriska. It seems that in Britain, which is famous for its traditions, a new tradition has emerged,” Medvedev wrote.

Earlier on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claimed that the selection of Liz Truss as prime minister signals a “crisis of democracy,” and that her Tory leadership election victory had nothing to do with the will of the people, “since the system of indirect elections dominates the Anglo-Saxon duo.”

Truss gained notoriety in Russia during her visit to Moscow in February, days before the launch of the military operation in Ukraine. Then-Foreign Secretary Truss confused the Russian regions of Voronezh and Rostov with Ukrainian regions, and told her counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, that London would never recognize Russia’s sovereignty over these areas. According to reports, she was then allegedly corrected by Deborah Bronnert, the UK ambassador. Lavrov described the meeting with the foreign secretary as talking “to a deaf person.”