Gavin Williamson laughs off Russian taunts
Gavin Williamson has laughed off Russian taunts over his stinging attack on Vladimir Putin's regime, insisting: "I've been called far worse before!"
In a speech on Thursday the Defence Secretary blasted Moscow for the 'reckless' nerve gas attack in Salisbury and said Russia should 'go away and shut up'.
Moscow hit back, accusing him of speaking like a 'market wench' and suffering from 'intellectual impotency'.
But speaking to the Express & Star today, South Staffordshire MP Mr Williamson, said: "This response is very much what you would expect from Russia.
"Quite frankly, I have been called far worse in the past!"
The Russian response to Mr Williamson's speech was led by Moscow's defence ministry spokesman, Major-General Igor Konashenkov.
He said: “The market wench talk that British Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson resorted to reflects his extreme intellectual impotency.
“It proves the deficiency of London’s accusations thrown at Russia in the past but also the inadequacy of the accusers.”
Russia had ‘long become immune to London accusing us of all sins’, he added.
It came as Putin ally Konstantin Kosachyov, chairman of the upper house’s International Relations committee, claimed a hostile Britain was preparing for war against Russia.
He said Britain is making ‘wholesale accusations against Russia’ before the inquiry into the spy poisoning is complete and ‘without proof’.
The verbal offensive from Russia came as intelligence sources revealed a theory that the nerve agent that poisoned Sergei Skripal was planted in his daughter’s suitcase before she left Moscow.
Senior sources say they are convinced the Novichok nerve agent was hidden in the luggage of Yulia Skripal, the double agent’s 33-year-old daughter.
They are working on the theory that Miss Skripal was deliberately targeted to get at her father.
