Russian President Vladimir Putin has lashed out at Western governments for their designation of a former Moscow spy poisoned in Britain as innocent, saying Sergei Skripal was simply a “scumbag” who committed treason by revealing confidential information about his country.
“He was simply a spy. A traitor to the motherland. There is such a concept – a traitor to the motherland. He was one of those,” Putin said in a speech in Moscow on Wednesday.
The remarks come amid a diplomatic stand-off between Russia and Britain on the poisoning of Skripal and his daughter in March in the southern English city of Salisbury.
London accused Moscow of ordering the poisoning attack, which it says was carried out using a sophisticated Soviet-era military-grade nerve agent.
Russia has denied any involvement and even some officials in Moscow believe the entire story, which led to a serious political fallout with the Western countries, was fabricated by the…