As Liz Truss Resigns, Russia Says UK Has Never Seen Such A "Disgrace Of A PM"

As Liz Truss resigned today as the Prime Minister of the UK, Russia has said Britain has never known such a disgrace of a PM.

"The catastrophic ignorance and the queen's funeral immediately after her audience with Liz Truss will be remembered," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said on Telegram. "Britain has never known such a disgrace as Prime Minister."

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 and Russia considers it as one of the most unfriendly Western countries.

A day after Liz Truss had replaced Boris Johnson as Prime Minister in September, Russian President Vladimir Putin had said that the way Britain chooses its leaders was "far from democratic".

President Putin had alluded to the fact that she was chosen in a leadership ballot by members of her Conservative party, not by the whole country. "The people of Great Britain don't take part, in this instance, in the change of government. The ruling elites there have their arrangements," Putin had said.

On prospects for ties with Britain, Vladimir Putin had said: "We know the Tories' (Conservatives') position on these questions, including on relations with Russia. It's their business how to build relations with the Russian Federation. Our business is to defend our own interests and we will do that consistently, let no one be in any doubt about that."

On her first international visit after taking over as PM, Liz Truss pledged at a UN summit to meet or exceed the 2.3 billion pounds ($2.6 billion) of military aid spent on Ukraine in 2002 in the next year, doubling down on her support for Kyiv after Russia's invasion.

Prime Minister Truss had also called on other leaders at the UN General Assembly in New York to help end Russia's energy stranglehold on Europe, saying it has allowed too many lives to be "manipulated".

Ms Truss had visited Russia as Foreign Secretary in February, just two weeks before President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine.  

In a strained meeting with counterpart Sergei Lavrov, she confused two regions of Russia with regions of Ukraine.

(Inputs from AFP and Reuters)