When Russian state television anchor Olga Skabeeva wrapped up her show 60 Minutes on Tuesday night, she had a brief but powerful conclusion: “We’re not afraid of sanctions, we have missiles!”
Her words seemed to encapsulate Moscow’s outrage and defiance in the face of British moves to punish it for the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal with a rare nerve agent of a type that only the Soviet Union was known to have made.
Russian government officials, lawmakers and analysts are all painting the British government’s charge as an insult, a threat and proof that Russia must stand strong and united against a hostile western world bent on destroying it.