A ‘workaholic and nerd’: What Russia makes of Rishi

‘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.