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Welcome to The Spectator Podcast. I'm Isabel Harbman. On this week's episode, we'll be looking at the

situation with Russia and whether diplomatic relations have been poisoned as a result of the Salisbury attack. We'll also be discussing the bullying scandal in Westminster and considering whether sledging and cricket has gone too far. First up, the nerve agent attack on Sergei Scripal in Salisbury has led to an outbreak of antagonism between Britain and Russia. Theresa May has now expelled a host of Russian diplomats, but can anything be done to stop Putin's

assault on Western values? That's the question Owen Matthews asks in the magazine this week,

and he joins me now along with Tom Tuggenhard, the chair of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.

So, Owen, you've been out in Moscow. How much coverage has there actually

been of the Salisbury attack? Well, strangely enough, there was a deafening silence the first

couple of days, and then they went into very familiar denial mode. Familiar, I mean, from

the more or less every moment that Russia has been accused of anything from the Crimea annexation

to the Olympic doping scandal to the US election hacking. Essentially, the coverage of Scripal

has been, this is another ridiculous plot to discredit Russia because the West is jealous and

fearful of our might.

That's been the clear line of all Russian media coverage.

Tom, do you think that the West is quite fearful of Russia's might?

It doesn't seem to have responded particularly forcefully to anything that Putin has done over the past few years.

No, I don't think that it's fearful of its might.

I think we're concerned that it's fearful of its might. I think we're

concerned that it's so unpredictable because it's such a rogue regime based on a relatively

unstable individual who is weak and getting weaker, which is why he's lashing out. And I mean,

how much do you think that the upcoming elections are influencing this? Well, no, I think

Colonel Tuggenhardt is right, certainly in the

sense that what the West fears is not Russia's strength at all. It's Russia's weakness. That's certainly

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