‘Handsome, rich, lucky, traitor.’ That’s how the Russian broadsheet newspaper Kommersant chose to describe the new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak after he launched his leadership bid. In a biographical article charting his rise to power, the paper covers his childhood attending Winchester College – the ‘most important event of his life’ apparently – moving through his time at university and marriage, and into his entry into politics.
The moniker of ‘traitor’ refers to his resignation from Boris Johnson’s cabinet in July this year before his own first leadership bid. Noting how different both prime ministers are, the paper states that ‘the strange thing is not that Sunak turned against Johnson, but that he turned against him so late’. Sunak is a ‘workaholic and nerd’, while Johnson was ‘brilliantly erudite’ with an elastic concept of the truth and morality.
Since Johnson’s own resignation in July, the Russian media has been following the chaos of the Tory party with fascinated trepidation. Would his successor be as hawkish on Ukraine? How easy would it be to use them to smear the UK’s image further in the eyes of ordinary Russians?
Sunak is a ‘workaholic and nerd’, while Johnson was ‘brilliantly erudite’ with an elastic concept of the truth and morality
In an article titled ‘What’s wrong with Rishi Sunak?’, the pro-Kremlin broadsheet Izvestia appears to be attempting just that. The paper claims that, under Sunak, Britain can expect a ‘redistribution of property’ as a result of the current economic crisis. It doesn’t elaborate on what this means, but the phrase will go some way to planting the idea of the new PM as hypocritical and draconian in Russians readers’ minds.
Sunak’s Hindu background and private education seem an endless source of fascination to the Russian press. Examining whether he would take a more Russia-friendly stance to the war in Ukraine, the state-backing tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda published another biography of Sunak. Tapping into the world of far-right, racist conspiracy, the paper bizarrely states that as Britain’s first Prime Minister of colour, Sunak has apparently turned the murky theory of ‘crypto-colonialism’ on its head, upending the British establishment and dispelling the notion of Britain as the ‘shadow control centre of the world’ on account of his Indian heritage. In the paper’s eyes, this is a good thing.
His family is wealthy, the paper says. That is why the young Rishi hung around ‘not in poor neighbourhoods with drug dealers’, but with fellow students at Winchester and Oxford: ‘the oldest, most elite nurseries of the British elite.’
And so, would Sunak take a more pro-Kremlin position on Ukraine? No, the Russian media correctly concluded. State-backed news agency Ria Novosti carried comments from the Kremlin on Sunak’s appointment. ‘We do not see any prerequisites, no grounds, no hopes that there will be any positive developments (in Anglo-Russian relations) in the foreseeable future’, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov is quoted as saying.
This was clearly a question they were preoccupied with: many of the papers set up live blogs to announce each of Sunak’s cabinet appointments. Penny Mordaunt, Jeremy Hunt, James Cleverly, Dominic Raab – none are exactly household names in Russia. Ben Wallace received a special mention in the Komsomolskaya Pravda for his strong anti-Kremlin stance. The papers also begrudgingly reported on Sunak’s conversation with Ukrainian premier Volodymr Zelensky, during which he assured him of the UK’s continuing support in the war against Russia.
As Sunak’s premiership progresses, the coverage it receives in the Russian state media is likely to continue much in this same vein. A ‘friend of Moscow’ he certainly is not.
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