On Thursday, the Foreign Ministry of Russia welcomed the departure of British Prime Minister Liz Truss who resigned after 45 days in office, calling her a disgrace of a leader who would be known for her “catastrophic illiteracy.”
On her Telegram channel, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova wrote, “Britain has never known such a disgrace of a prime minister, and will be remembered for her catastrophic illiteracy.”
Liz Truss, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, resigned on Thursday, October 20, 2022. She resigned from the Prime Ministership on the 45th day of her tenure. Truss made the statement outside Downing Street after losing nearly all political power.
Liz Truss stated in her resignation speech, “I came into office at a time of great economic and international instability.” Families and businesses were concerned about their ability to pay their bills. Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine jeopardizes the security of the entire continent. And for far too long, our country had been held back by slow economic growth. The Conservative Party elected me with a mandate to change this.”
Truss served as British foreign secretary before becoming prime minister last month, a position in which she was chastised by Russian officials for what they saw as her failed attempts to improve relations between the United Kingdom and Russia.
Veteran Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov outlined his talks with Truss as “conversations between the deaf and the dumb” during a visit to Moscow briefly before the invasion of Ukraine.
During her tense meeting with Lavrov, she also confused two Russian regions with Ukrainian regions, prompting mockery from the Russian diplomat and across Russian state television talk shows.
Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian President taking a dig at Liz Truss, wrote on Twitter, “Bye bye @trussliz, congrats to lettuce”, making a reference to the British Daily Star tabloid’s livestream asking whether Truss’s troubled tenure would outlast the shelf-life of a lettuce.
Bye, bye @trussliz, congrats to lettuce
— Dmitry Medvedev (@MedvedevRussiaE) October 20, 2022
Notably, the Russian media has conducted extensive and mirthful coverage of Truss’ resignation. On a political talk show ‘Time Will Tell’ a guest said that Liz Truss had all the three traits requisite to thrive in British politics, “Stupidity, arrogance, and belligerence.”
Russian officials have been critical of Truss’s term of office from the start, revelling in her numerous gaffes. Lavrov said Truss didn’t know how to compromise when she was appointed in September and questioned how the British leader could say she didn’t know if French President Emmanuel Macron was a “friend or foe.”
Truss’ high-profile photo shoot in Estonia last year, where she donned a flak jacket and helmet to ride in a tank during a visit to British troops stationed in the Baltic country, was also mocked by Zakharova on Thursday.
Obviously I get Truss was trying to channel Thatcher with this visit, but she must have been absolutely boiling in that outfit – it’s unseasonably warm in Moscow, was 2°C yesterday pic.twitter.com/FwimLduskF
— max seddon (@maxseddon) February 10, 2022
Even before Russia invaded Ukraine, relations between Moscow and London had deteriorated to their lowest point in decades, following the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal in 2018 in Salisbury, Britain.
