When everyone waited for the announcement about the new UK PM, Russia appeared pessimistic about the leader who would take office after caretaker prime minister Boris Johnson. Russia said on Monday (September 5) that it could not rule out the possibility that dire relations with Britain would get even worse under the country’s next prime minister.
“I wouldn’t like to say that things can change for the worse, because it’s hard to imagine anything worse,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said when asked if Moscow expected any shift in relations with Britain. He made these comments before Liz Truss was declared the next PM of UK.
“But unfortunately, this cannot be ruled out, given that the contenders for the post of British prime minister competed with each other in anti-Russian rhetoric, in threats to take further steps against our country, and so on. Therefore, I don’t think that we can hope for anything positive.”
Asked if President Vladimir Putin would send a congratulatory telegram, he said: “Let’s wait and see who becomes prime minister.”
Truss is chiefly known in Russia for a visit she made to Moscow in February, when she and foreign minister Sergei Lavrov held a rancorous meeting. Lavrov described their conversation as like a dialogue between deaf and mute people, complaining that facts had “bounced off” her.
Truss has made geographic gaffes before, including on one occasion when she mixed up the Black and Baltic seas.
Truss openly challenged Lavrov at their meeting over Russia’s troop build-up near Ukraine, saying: “I can’t see any reason for having 100,000 troops stationed on the border, apart from to threaten Ukraine.”
Since then, Britain has been one of the most active and vocal supporters of Ukraine after Moscow sent troops into the country on February 24, and has been supplying Kyiv with weapons and training.
(With inputs from agencies)
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