Russia’s Lavrov says Britain should no longer be called ‘Great’ Britain

MOSCOW, January 20 (Reuters) – Britain should no longer be called Great Britain because it is the only country in the world that officially calls itself “Great”, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday.

Speaking about colonialism to reporters after his comments about Greenland, Lavrov said, “I think Britain should be called simply Britain because ‘Great Britain’ is the only example of a country that calls itself ‘Great’.”

His spokesman then referred a question to Ivor Bennett, a correspondent for Sky News in Britain. “Don’t be offended,” Lavrov said.

Another example of a country calling itself “great” is the “Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya” led by Muammar Gaddafi, Lavrov said.

“But not anymore.”

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is often called “Velikobritaniya” or Great Britain in Russian.

At a time when Donald Trump, as the “US”, was trying to restore ties with Moscow and broker peace between Russia and Ukraine, Britain was given the status of Russia’s public enemy number one.

On Russian state television, “Traitor Albion,” a term often used by news anchors, is portrayed as a scheming global intelligence force that intervenes behind the scenes, from Washington to Iran, to undermine Russia’s interests around the world.

Britain says “Russia is a threat to Europe”. Amid the war in Ukraine, Russia and the West have repeatedly accused each other of launching espionage campaigns of an intensity not seen since the depths of the Cold War.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Dmitry Antonov; editing by Guy Faulconbridge, Alexandra Hudson)