Theresa May slams Vladimir Putin’s personal record in Russia as dirty tricks row between London and Moscow spiral

THERESA May slammed Vladimir Putin’s personal record as Russia boss earlier today as a dirty tricks row between London and Moscow spiralled.

The furious PM ordered Downing Street aides to hit back at the Kremlin’s accusation that Boris Johnson tried to turn US leader Donald Trump against its leader.

The extraordinary diatribe against the Foreign Secretary was mounted through the Russian embassy here.

It accused Boris of leading an “anti-Russian witch hunt” during his trip to meet the President Elect’s advisers in New York, and tweeted: “Thatcher went to US to mend relations btw Washington & Moscow & end Cold War, @Boris_Johnson pursued the opposite objective”.

While insisting Russia’s attack “doesn’t merit a response”, the PM’s official spokeswoman went to draw a series of damning comparisons between the two governments.

The senior No10 official said: “You might think about negative economic growth in Russia and the UK being one of the fastest growing economies in the world; how many times the UK consistently advanced and supported UN Security Council resolutions on Syria, Russia was meanwhile vetoing them; the fact that we have freedom of expression and a free press in the UK who choose what they report.

“Those are just the realities of the UK government versus Russia.”

Boris Johnson’s aides also accused Russia of talking “complete rubbish”, insisting the embassy has “no idea what was discussed”.

In the Commons on Tuesday, the Foreign Secretary told MPs that “the Putin Kremlin is up to all sorts of very dirty tricks, such as cyber-warfare”.

The row came after a damning US intelligence report on Russia hacking of political parties’ computers during America’s election campaign.

It was ordered personally by President Putin in a bid to disrupt the poll, the CIA and the FBI said.