Mr. Lavrov spoke to Ms. Truss, politely explaining how to deal with simultaneous translations. He later described negotiating with her as being like talking to a “deaf mute.” Fewer than 20 percent of Russia’s parliamentarians are women, and there has never been a woman in charge of the Kremlin, Russia’s center of power since the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. For Francis Scarr, a BBC-observed journalist who analyzes Russian state television, Ms Truss’s portrayal comes as no surprise. “Every slip she makes is reinforced as she’s often derided as uneducated or a poor imitation of Margaret Thatcher,” he said. Russian TV has gone after most European leaders and this week called Sanna Marin, the Finnish prime minister, a “drug addict” and described Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, as a “little Führer” who viewed Adolf Hitler as an “idol with a moustache”. . “. Mr Scarr said Ms Truss’s “particularly intransigent stance on the war has brought her into particular abuse” and this appears to be having an impact on the Russian public. Konstantin, a lawyer from St Petersburg, said he saw Ms Truss as a comic figure who would not be able to handle Putin, saying: “We laugh at her. Putin is just in a completely different category.”
