Williamson ‘minister of war’ jibe

RUSSIAN Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has fired back at UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson, calling him the “minister of war”.

Mr Lavrov’s comments came the day after Mr Williamson gave a speech at the Munich Security Conference, saying that Russia was “trying to goad the West into a new arms race it simply is not interested in and does not want”.

Mr Lavrov, talking about Russia’s perception of “increased activity by Nato”, said Moscow was interested in knowing how the western alliance saw its mandate in the Arctic.

He said: “If you listen to some people like minister of war – or, sorry, minister of defence of the United Kingdom, then you might get an impression that nobody except Nato has the right to be anywhere other than in their own borders.”