RUSSIAN foreign minister Sergei Lavrov today returned from a mysterious absence to launch a raging attack on Britain.
The 75-year-old took the opportunity to mock the UK’s “weak” military and nuclear arsenal.
Lavrov had disappeared from the public eye “in disgrace.”
He was reported as being sidelined by Vladimir Putin over a failure to arrange a summit in Budapest with Donald Trump.
Others rumours suggested that Lavrov had been suffering from a secret medical condition.
However, he returned today to criticise Great Britain, which the Kremlin views as the leading force behind Western support for Ukraine.
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“You see, there was an empire, an empire that ruled practically the whole world.
“Now that empire no longer exists.
“Nor does the good old England they used to boast about, and they no longer have any economic power.
“Their military power is also relatively weak, including their nuclear arsenal, which they cannot actually control 100% themselves.
“But they have to compensate for this somehow.
“They compensate with this traditional English desire to, well, divide and rule everywhere.
“And there are also indecent ways to describe how they behave and what goals they pursue in doing so,” said Lavrov.
He jumped on the peculiar FSB claims today that MI6 and Ukrainian intelligence had plotted the defection of a MiG-31 warplane along with his plane and a hypersonic missile.
“But we will leave that aside.
“The FSB has exposed all this in great detail, and I don’t know how the British will wash themselves clean of it.
“Although their ability to be like a goose that has just come out of the shower is well known,” Lavrov added.
This comes amid the backdrop of speculation that Vladimir Putin’s right hand man has fallen out of favour.
He was reportedly frozen out of top-level meeting, sparking speculations that he had been ousted.
Sources inside Moscow claim Putin’s second daughter, Katerina Tikhonova, 39, is seeking to topple the foreign minister in a bid to claim top spot.
Putin’s former speechwriter Abbas Gallyamov said “serious sources” told him that Katerina was seeking to sink Lavrov.
“Rumours about Lavrov were already circulating six months ago.
“Serious sources said that Katerina Tikhonova had supposedly spoken to Putin repeatedly, saying that Lavrov was making things worse,” he said.
Katerina reportedly told Putin that Lavrov was “too aggressive” and his “hawkish screeching” was hindering progress in the Ukraine war.
Gallyamov said: “Perhaps Putin finally listened to his daughter? And besides, she’s got a point.
“Lavrov is a foreign minister for times when you’re winning.
“He is the perfect diplomat to bluster when you have won a war.
“But when you can’t win, you need to become more reasonable.
“And Lavrov is no longer capable of such reasonableness. He should have been replaced long ago.”
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Lavrov is a hardline diplomat, earning the nickname “Dr No” for his relentless obstructions and refusal to compromise with the West.
He has been at the helm of maintaining Russia’s foreign relations for 21 years.