No wonder Trump likes Putin so much.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has labelled poisoned ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal a “traitor” and a “scumbag”.

In a speech, he complained that the media were treating Mr Skripal as “some kind of human rights defender”, insisting he had betrayed his country.

And that’s why we poisoned him! Wouldn’t anyone?

“I see that some of our colleagues are pushing the theory that Mr Skripal was almost some kind of human rights activist,” Mr Putin said on Wednesday.

The Russian leader, a former intelligence officer himself, then described Mr Skripal as a “traitor to the motherland”.

“He’s simply a scumbag, that’s all.”

And what do we do to scumbags? We murder them. Doesn’t everyone?

The verbal attack on Sergei Skripal underlines Vladimir Putin’s personal hatred of betrayal. He’s said before it’s the one thing he can’t forgive.

Many Russians share that contempt, and there was applause from some in the conference hall for the comments. But Mr Putin’s outburst also seems meant to distract from increasing talk about the two key suspects in the poisoning.

Last month, at another conference, he was asked about the men. He vouched for them personally, saying there was “nothing special” and “nothing criminal” about them.

Crucially, he also insisted they were civilians. Since then, credible evidence has emerged that the men are in fact military intelligence officers and investigative journalists are still digging. On that, Vladimir Putin has so far remained silent.

Just a couple of ordinary guys, totally civilian, who went to the UK for 24 hours to see the Salisbury Waitrose which is a world heritage site as any fule kno.