Vlad to worse

THE unmasking of the Russian hitman wanted over the Salisbury poisonings raises further questions for Vladimir Putin.

We now know one of the suspects, named as Ruslan Boshirov, is a military intelligence colonel who the president handed the country’s highest honour to. This revelation makes a mockery of Boshirov’s claim to have been in Salisbury to see the cathedral.

Everything now points to an operation ordered at the highest levels in the Kremlin. Putin may try to manipulate the truth but he cannot twist the fact he leads a rogue state.