Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia, reacted to the decision of British Prime Minister Liz Truss to resign.
"Bye, bye Liz Truss, congrats to lettuce," Medvedev tweeted on his English account.
Medvedev thus referred to the campaign that The Daily Star tabloid started a few days ago — "Can Truss Last Longer Than Lettuce?".
According to Reuters, the organizers of the campaign were inspired by the op-ed in The Economist that compared Truss' tenure to the shelf life of lettuce.
Truss announced her decision to step down on October 20, on her 45th day as prime minister. She acknowledged mistakes in her economic policy and said that she failed to live up to the mandate of confidence that led to her being elected by the Conservative Party. Liz Truss was also harshly criticized for her tax initiatives. She had to abandon such plans and dismiss the head of the Ministry of Finance.
Truss will remain the head of the British government before the time when the new prime minister is elected. The voting process will end on October 28, and the new prime minister will be appointed on October 31.
Truss stayed in office for only 44 days. Her premiership was the shortest in history. The previous record belonged to George Canning — he stayed in office for 119 days.
The reform that the Truss cabinet introduced in late September led to chaos in the financial markets.
The pound sterling fell sharply on September 25 to a historic low against the US dollar. This forced the Bank of England to intervene in the government bond market to prevent a collapse from happening. The UK budget could lose approximately 45 billion pounds of income per year.
The prime minister's programs also led to a drop in her support rating. According to the results of the poll, the level of support for the politician in the UK for October 14-16 fell to ten percent. The previous poll on October 11-12 showed that Liz Truss had the support of 15 percent of Britons.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova recalled the failures that British Prime Minister Liz Truss had in service. Zakharova recollected the bizarre incident when Truss drove a NATO tank near Russian borders, as well as her shameful slip-ups during a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
"Britain has never known such shame. The helmet and the tank, her abyss of ignorance and the queen's death that occurred soon after she met Liz Truss will go down in history," Zakharova wrote on Telegram channel.