Russians are ‘f lexing muscles in Britain’s backyard’

RUSSIA has been ‘flexing its muscles’ in Britain’s backyard in a way not seen since the Cold War, the head of the Armed Forces warned yesterday.

General Sir Nick Carter condemned Moscow for testing the UK and Nato allies with incursions by warships and portraying the Oxford AstraZeneca jab as a ‘monkey vaccine’ for its own ‘economic and reputational purposes’.

The Chief of the Defence Staff, pictured, said the Russian regime was reacting to problems at home, adding: ‘They are wrestling with their own sense of imperial overstretch as their “near abroad” becomes increasingly restive.’

Delivering his Royal United Services Institute Christmas lecture, he said: ‘The week before last, Russia assembled ten or so warships and combat aircraft from the northern Baltic and Black Sea fleets in a show of force in the waters off the British and Irish coasts.

‘They are flexing their muscles in our own backyard with an ostentation that they’ve not displayed since the Cold War. Deterring these threats, signalling to the Russian regime that we shall not tamely acquiesce should they escalate, requires conventional hard power, warships and aircraft, as well as less conventional capabilities like cyber.’

Sir Nick, pictured, said of the vaccine: ‘Russian efforts to undermine the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine as a “monkey vaccine” are for economic and reputational purposes.’ His comments came after the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dmitriev, said he would reconsider calling the jab the monkey vaccine.

Images of people having the jab then turning into apes have been widely circulated on social media.