‘No political wisdom’: Kremlin not confident about next British PM, whoever it might be

It is not just Britain that expects little from its third new Conservative prime minister this year.

Russia, which was far from complimentary about outgoing leader Liz Truss, said on Friday that it did not believe anyone who has a part in choosing the new leader will exercise “political wisdom”, and took a swipe at the fact that the British people are not allowed to have their say in deciding who ends up in Number 10.

Asked about the possible return of Boris Johnson to the top post, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “We do not expect insight and political wisdom from anyone in the countries of the collective West, let alone Britain.”

He continued: “Especially in Britain, where people do not choose the person at the head of the executive branch, who appears as a result of internal party shake-ups.”

Johnson, an outspoken supporter of Ukraine in the conflict with neighbouring Russia, was ousted from the premiership in July, amid a huge wave of scandals.

These included unlawfully closing parliament for the five weeks ahead of a 31 October deadline in 2019 for Britain leaving the EU, cronyism, being fined for breaking his own lockdown laws, and his ethics advisors resigning over his behaviour.

Despite this, and the fact that his own party kicked him out of office only in September, Johnson has a strong chance of returning to Number 10.

Moscow was absolutely scathing about his replacement Liz Truss, when she called time on her disastrous premiership on Thursday,

Russia savaged her, calling Britain’s third female PM a disgrace of a leader who would be remembered only for her “catastrophic illiteracy”.

“Britain has never known such a disgrace of a prime minister,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a social media post.

Such was the relish and vehemency of the attack, Russia was one of the first countries to respond to her departure.

Meanwhile, former Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvdev took to Twitter to gloat about her departure.

“Bye, bye @trussliz, congrats to lettuce,” he wrote.

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

The claim of illiteracy appears to refer to that trip, 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.

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