Russia takes one last swipe at Liz Truss

Russia has taken one last swipe at Liz Truss following her resignation as Prime Minister, saying she was a ‘disgrace’ of a leader who would be remembered for her ‘catastrophic illiteracy,’ as world leaders reacted to the news.

‘Britain has never known such a disgrace of a prime minister,’ Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. ‘The catastrophic illiteracy and the queen’s funeral immediately after her audience with Liz Truss will be remembered.’

The claim of illiteracy appears to refer to Truss’s visit to Moscow in February before Russia invaded Ukraine, when Truss was British foreign minister. In a meeting with Russia’s veteran foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, she appeared to confuse two regions of Russia with Ukraine, triggering widespread mockery in Russian media.

‘Britain has never known such a disgrace of a prime minister,’ Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (shown left) said. ‘The catastrophic illiteracy and the queen’s funeral immediately after her audience with Liz Truss will be remembered’. Pictured right: Liz Truss visits Moscow during her time as Britain’s Foreign Secretary in February 2022

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev wrote on Twitter: ‘Bye, bye @trussliz, congrats to lettuce’, referring to the British Daily Star tabloid’s days-long livestream asking whether Truss’ troubled premiership would outlast the shelf-life of a lettuce.

Truss’ resignation attracted extensive and gleeful coverage on Russian state TV.

A guest on the political talkshow ‘Time Will Tell’ said Truss had possessed the three traits needed to thrive in British politics: ‘Stupidity, arrogance, and belligerence’.

Truss has been the target of withering comments from Moscow since she visited in February as part of a fruitless drive by Western politicians to the invasion of Ukraine. 

Russian officials took a dim view of Truss’s premiership from the outset and have revelled in her numerous gaffes. 

Upon her appointment in September, Lavrov said Truss did not know how to compromise and questioned how the British leader could say she did not know whether French President Emmanuel Macron was a ‘friend or foe’.

Zakharova also on Thursday mocked 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.  

Relations between Moscow and London have deteriorated for years, over issues such as the 2018 poisoning of a former Russian spy in Salisbury. They have reached record lows since Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine.

The UK is one of Kyiv’s staunchest supporters in the fact of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and Russia considers it as one of the most unfriendly Western countries.

Truss announced her resignation on Thursday, just 44 days after being appointed, with a leadership election in her Conservative Party expected within the next week.

Truss’s tenure was derailed by her economic program, which sent shockwaves through financial markets and was all but abandoned.

Other world leaders also reacted as news of Truss’s unprecedented resignation as Prime Minister reverberated around the world.

France’s President Emmanuel Macron wished Britain a rapid return to stability, while the White House reiterated that the US will continue its close relationship.

Ireland’s Prime Minister Michael Martin expressed his hope that Truss’s successor would be selected quickly to ensure stability.

Arriving at an EU summit, Macron said he would not comment on British domestic politics but added: ‘It is important that Great Britain regains political stability very quickly, and that is all I wish.’

Pictured: French President Emmanuel Macron gives a wink and a thumbs up to photographers as he arrives at a two-day EU Council in Brussels, Belgium, October 20, 2022 – shortly after Liz Truss announced she would be resigning as Britain’s Prime Minister

Relations between Paris and London have often been sour as Britain negotiated its divorce from the European Union, and threatened to get worse as Truss courted the hardline pro-Brexit wing of her party.

During her campaign to be elected leader of the Conservative Party, and thus prime minister, Truss famously said that ‘the jury is out’ on whether the French leader was a friend or foe of Britain.

But there were also signs of a potential rapprochement on strategic issues, with Truss agreeing to attend the first summit in Prague of the Macron-inspired European Political Community.

News of Truss’s resignation broke as Macron was arriving at the EU summit in Brussels, and he was asked about it by reporters. As he arrived, he gave photographers a wink and a thumbs up.

Macron said that he had had several telephone calls with Truss during her brief time in office and had been glad to see her in Prague.

‘I want to say that France, as a nation and people who are friends of the British people, wishes them above all stability,’ he said, stressing the context of the war in Ukraine and energy price crisis.

‘But personally, I’m always sad to see a colleague leave in this way and what I want to say is that I wish stability can return soon.’

In August, Mr Macron reacted with anger to Truss’s ‘friend or foe’ comments.

Pictured: Macron (left) holds a bilateral meeting with Truss on the sidelines of the 77th United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York City on September 20, 2022

In a concerted dig Mr Macron, said at the time: ‘The United Kingdom is a friendly nation, regardless of its leaders, and sometimes in spite of its leaders.’ 

Asked further about Ms Truss’s perceived insult Mr Macron said: ‘It’s never a good idea to lose your bearings in life. ‘If I’d been asked the question myself [as to whether I’m a friend or foe of Liz Truss], this is how I’d answer it – whoever becomes the next leader of Great Britain, I won’t ask myself any questions about them personally.

‘Great Britain is a friend of France, and you know we live in a complicated world.

‘We have more and more liberal governments, autocratic democracies and other powers that create imbalance, and if we’re not able to say whether the French and British people are friends or foes – and the word foes is not a neutral one – then we’re heading towards serious problems.

‘So yes, I say it with certainty, the British people, the British nation is our friend. The United Kingdom, strong and allied, regardless of its leaders, and sometimes in spite of and beyond its leaders, or regardless of the small mistakes they can make in their speeches,’ he said in August.  

On Thursday, US President Biden vowed to continue close cooperation with Britain following Truss’s resignation.

‘I thank Prime Minister Liz Truss for her partnership on a range of issues including holding Russia accountable for its war against Ukraine,’ Biden said in a statement.

Prime Minister Liz Truss holding a bilateral with US President Joe Biden at the UN building in New York, during her visit to the US to attend the 77th UN General Assembly in September. White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said on Thursday that the United States will continue its close relationship with Britain and the successor to Truss

‘We will continue our close cooperation with the UK government as we work together to meet the global challenges our nations face.’

White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain made a similar statement earlier.

‘Our country’s always had a special relationship with the United Kingdom without regard to the partisan affiliation of our president or the politics of their prime minister,’ Klain told MSNBC in a televised interview. ‘That’s going to continue no matter who the UK picks as their next prime minister.’

Klain cited many shared causes, including Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, as areas where the two historic allies would continue to be aligned.

‘We’re going to work very, very closely with whomever succeeds Prime Minister Truss,’ he said.

Ireland’s Prime Minister Martin said: ‘I think stability is very important and we would like to see the UK system within its capacity in a position to have a successor selected as quickly as possible … during these times when a major war is underway on the continent in Europe.’ 

Donohoe said he is looking forward to continuing Ireland’s close friendship with the UK in the wake of Liz Truss’s resignation as Prime Minister. 

Ireland’s finance minister said: ‘The political and the economic stability of the United Kingdom is a vital ingredient in the economic prospects of Ireland and indeed of Europe, and the Government of the United Kingdom has reaffirmed their commitment to budgetary and economic standards.

‘Ireland has always been a close friend of the United Kingdom and of the government of the United Kingdom, and even during tough and challenging moments during the Brexit process.

‘We always affirmed the value of that close friendship and we really look forward in the time ahead to continuing that close friendship and co-operation with the new prime minister of the United Kingdom.’ 

Meanwhile, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte expressed his ‘annoyance’ that she had left the office, and said Truss’s successor would be the fifth British Prime Minister he has worked with since he assumed office in 2010.

‘I had a good contact with her (…) so I’m annoyed for her personally (…) We agreed on a whole range of views and I’m looking forward to work with who will be my next colleague,’ adding: ‘It will be the fifth one, I believe.’