ALEXANDRA KOLLANTI WOULD DISAGREE*
Propagandist described Liz Truss as ‘dangerous’. Picture by John Sibley/Reuters
James Kilner in London
August 28 2022
It is not just British TV viewers who have seen a lot more of Liz Truss over the past couple of months as she competes to become the next British prime minister. Russians have too.
Coverage on state-owned television channels has been misogynistic and veers between presenting Ms Truss as a radical and a political lightweight.
“Liz Truss doesn’t belong in politics, but in the kitchen,” analyst Igor Korotchenko said on Rossiya One last week, claiming she was “uneducated”, “dangerous” and a less “reasonable” candidate than rival Rishi Sunak.
Vladimir Solovyov, one of the Kremlin’s chief propagandists, responded to Britain sanctioning the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox church with a rant accusing Ms Truss of starting a religious war with Russia.
“She has such delusions of grandeur,” he said. “Such phantasmagoric audacity is unheard of since the times of the Tartars and the Mongols. Who does she think she is?”
Russian news has also replayed footage of what it considers to be Ms Truss betraying her weakness when she recoiled in shock after the interviewer at one of the first Conservative leadership debates fainted.
Mr Solovyov suggested that “when Britain falls”, the clip proved that Ms Truss would only be able to hold her hand to her mouth and gasp.
Another favourite Russian state TV favourite clip of Mrs Truss comes from her meeting with Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, in Moscow in February, shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine. Mr Lavrov spoke over Ms Truss, patronisingly explaining how to cope with simultaneous translations. He later described negotiating with her as like talking to a “deaf mute”.
Yesterday Ms Truss vowed to bolster Britain’s defences if she is made prime minister, including by pushing ahead with renewing Trident, as she warned “the era of complacency is over”.
Less than 20pc of Russia’s MPs are women and there has never been a woman in charge in the Kremlin, the centre of Russia’s power since the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.
For Francis Scarr, a journalist with BBC monitoring who analyses Russian state TV, the portrayal of Ms Truss is not a surprise. “Every slip-up she makes is amplified, with her often derided as uneducated or a poor imitation of Margaret Thatcher,” he said.
Russian TV goes after most European leaders and last week it called Sanna Marin, the Finnish prime minister, a “drug addict” and described Olaf Scholz, the German Chancellor, as a “little Furher” who looked up to Adolf Hitler as a “moustachioed idol”.
James Kilner in London
August 28 2022
It is not just British TV viewers who have seen a lot more of Liz Truss over the past couple of months as she competes to become the next British prime minister. Russians have too.
Coverage on state-owned television channels has been misogynistic and veers between presenting Ms Truss as a radical and a political lightweight.
“Liz Truss doesn’t belong in politics, but in the kitchen,” analyst Igor Korotchenko said on Rossiya One last week, claiming she was “uneducated”, “dangerous” and a less “reasonable” candidate than rival Rishi Sunak.
Vladimir Solovyov, one of the Kremlin’s chief propagandists, responded to Britain sanctioning the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox church with a rant accusing Ms Truss of starting a religious war with Russia.
“She has such delusions of grandeur,” he said. “Such phantasmagoric audacity is unheard of since the times of the Tartars and the Mongols. Who does she think she is?”
Russian news has also replayed footage of what it considers to be Ms Truss betraying her weakness when she recoiled in shock after the interviewer at one of the first Conservative leadership debates fainted.
Mr Solovyov suggested that “when Britain falls”, the clip proved that Ms Truss would only be able to hold her hand to her mouth and gasp.
Another favourite Russian state TV favourite clip of Mrs Truss comes from her meeting with Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, in Moscow in February, shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine. Mr Lavrov spoke over Ms Truss, patronisingly explaining how to cope with simultaneous translations. He later described negotiating with her as like talking to a “deaf mute”.
Yesterday Ms Truss vowed to bolster Britain’s defences if she is made prime minister, including by pushing ahead with renewing Trident, as she warned “the era of complacency is over”.
Less than 20pc of Russia’s MPs are women and there has never been a woman in charge in the Kremlin, the centre of Russia’s power since the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.
For Francis Scarr, a journalist with BBC monitoring who analyses Russian state TV, the portrayal of Ms Truss is not a surprise. “Every slip-up she makes is amplified, with her often derided as uneducated or a poor imitation of Margaret Thatcher,” he said.
Russian TV goes after most European leaders and last week it called Sanna Marin, the Finnish prime minister, a “drug addict” and described Olaf Scholz, the German Chancellor, as a “little Furher” who looked up to Adolf Hitler as a “moustachioed idol”.
* EVEN IF SHE IS A REACTIONARY
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