Britain and Russia facing 'last war in the history of mankind' over Salisbury attack, retired Moscow general declares

Britain and Moscow could be facing "the last war in the history of mankind" over the Salisbury attack, a retired Russian general declared today.

Evgeny Buzhinsky claimed the diplomatic spat risks becoming "worse than the Cold War" and escalating into a full-blown armed conflict.

It comes a day after Russia's Foreign Minister said there was "a lot of talk" about relations between London and Moscow being worse than during the Cold War.

Segrei Lavrov hit out after around 150 Russian diplomats were expelled from 25 countries in retaliation to the attack on ex-spy Sergei Skripal with a nerve agent in Wiltshire.

Buzhinsky, who chairs the Moscow-based PIR Center think tank, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It’s a Cold War, it’s worse than the Cold War.

"Because if the situation will develop in the way it is now, I’m afraid it will end up in a very very bad outcome."

Asked what he meant he said: "A real war. Worse than the Cold War is a real war, it will be the last war in the history of mankind."

Today Theresa May's officials warned the challenges posed by Russia will "endure for years to come".

But a No10 spokesman insisted: "We've been clear that the UK would much rather have a constructive partner in Russia one that plays by the rules."

Buzhinsky said it could be caused not by the Salisbury poisoning but by the diplomatic aftermath, adding: "You are saying the pressure will continue - what are you going to achieve?

"If you’re going to achieve regime change it’s useless, you don’t know Russians.

"The more external pressure there is, the more society is consolidated around the President."

Vladimir Putin won a landslide victory to serve another six years as President just days after the Salisbury attack in an election marred by accusations of vote-rigging.

Buzhinsky told the BBC: "You are cornering Russia and to corner Russia is a very dangerous thing."

Yet he claimed Putin - who denies responsibility for the attack - would be "the last guy to benefit" from the poisoning of Skripal and his daughter Yulia with deadly nerve agent Novichok .

And he dismissed the response to Russia - which was the biggest ever expulsion of Moscow diplomats - because it was not joined by "major countries" China, India and Korea.

Former UK Ambassador to Moscow Sir Tony Brenton said Buzhinsky’s comments were a "a relatively mainstream view” that was "widely shared among the Russian elite and among the Russian people."

Sir Tony told the BBC: "What we have is not a Putin problem, what we have is a Russia problem."

Yesterday Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that there was “a lot of talk about a ‘cold war’, about the situation being worse than it was during the classic Cold War, because then there were some rules, and some decency was observed”, according to a translation by The Times.

Mr Lavrov added: “I believe that our western partners, I mean primarily the United Kingdom, the United States and some countries that blindly follow them, have cast away all decency, they are resorting to open lies, blatant misinformation.”

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson last week hailed "a watershed moment and a turning point" in the international community's efforts against Russia.

He told MPs: "After all the lies, all the clouds of deceit and all the deployment of Russia’s wearying and sarcastic intercontinental ballistic whoppers.

"The countries of the world have come together, in numbers far greater than Putin can possibly have imagined, to say that enough is enough."

He added: "We want to be friends with Russia and we want to be friends with the Russian people.

"But it is up to the Russian Government to change, and to change now."