Politics

Former prime minister Liz Truss has called on the government to have a plan in place in case the Russian government under Vladimir Putin collapses.

It came as Foreign Secretary James Cleverly described the mutiny over the weekend as an “unprecedented challenge to President Putin’s authority”.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Ms Truss said: “We, and our allies – including the Ukrainians, including the Poles, including the Baltic states – need to make sure that we have a plan in the case of the implosion of Russia.”

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While he did not respond to Ms Truss’s point initially, Mr Cleverly later said that “the leadership of Russia is for the Russian people”.

“We do not speculate or attempt to predict – what we do is plan and put in place contingency arrangements,” he added.

“And so therefore, whatever the outcome of this conflict is, we shall be prepared.”