Russia's Ambassador to the United Kingdom has accused Boris Johnson of insulting the Russian people in comparing Putin’s use of the 2018 World Cup as a propaganda opportunity akin to Hitler’s use of the 1936 Berlin Olympics to endorse Nazism.

But it is Putin and his cronies who have insulted the people of Britain in dismissing the totally justified outrage over the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter (almost certainly ordered by the Russian State) as a tempest in a teapot (perhaps more appropriately a storm in a samovar).

In many ways Putin is a far graver threat to peace than the old USSR ever was. He is a thug and a bully – but as with all bullies it only takes one person to stand up to them to see them off.

The Russians dismiss Britain as an insignificant little island but will soon find out to their cost that they have bitten off more than they can chew – a British bulldog is more than a match for a Russian bear.

ROBERT READMAN

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