Putin calls Skripal a scumbag

Putin has called the poisoned former double agent Sergei Skripal a "scumbag" and a "traitor". The research network Bellingcat reported last week that one of the men suspected of the attack was Anatoliy Chepiga, a colonel in the Russian military intelligence agency GRU. Is Putin losing his temper now that he feels he's been cornered?

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Ekho Moskvy (RU) /

This case is really making Putin mad

Russia should decide once and for all what its stance is on ex-agent Skripal, Echo of Moscow demands:

“Either we say we aren't guilty and prove it. Or we confess that we tried to kill this scumbag because we don't consider traitors to be people and kill them no matter where they are in the world even if our president himself has pardoned them. ... The Kremlin has been forced into a corner with these Skripals and Chepigas, and Putin is starting to get angry. And when he's angry he remembers his childhood in Leningrad and the language of the gutter spoken on Ligovsky Avenue.”

newsru.com (RU) /

Who's the scumbag here?

Journalist Alexey Melnikov wonders in a blog post published by newsru.com what you have to do in Putin's Russia not to be a traitor or scumbag:

“How do you earn respect in Russia? How do you become a statesman? ... You surround yourself with lackeys and vassals, you trample on the freedom of opinion and elections. You seize power and cling to it for decades, violate your constitution by invading a neighbouring country, and occupy part of its territory. You make sure your best friends become billionaires during your rule. ... You rob your country of its prospects and expose it to Western sanctions. You have your bodyguards appointed governors. You create a police force that works against the people and there too you appoint one of your bodyguards as chief. You lie to the country and the world about everything. ... That's how you avoid being a traitor and scumbag in Russia.”