LIZ Truss did a Margaret Thatcher yesterday — and climbed aboard a British tank to warn Russia against invasion plans.
The Foreign Secretary said President Vladimir Putin would be making a strategic mistake if he took military action to extend his territory.
Wearing a helmet and armoured vest, Ms Truss was just miles from the Russian border as she declared: “We will stand with our fellow democracies against Russia’s malign activity.”
And she vowed Nato would safeguard the security of Ukraine amid growing fears Putin will annexe the neighbour state.
Mrs Thatcher revived her Iron Lady status in 1986 by riding on a Challenger tank at a Nato training camp in Germany — wearing goggles and a headscarf.
The ambitious Ms Truss was visiting hundreds of battle-ready British troops near Tallinn, Estonia, right.
Back home, she has parked her tanks firmly on No10’s lawn by topping a Tory party members poll. It comes as Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s unpopularity plunged to new lows — coming bottom for recent performance in the eyes of the true blue faithful.
The PM is now ranked minus 17, according to the latest grassroots survey for ConservativeHome, while Ms Truss has a plus 82.3 rating.
Her tank stunt came ahead of Nato foreign ministers gathering in Latvia to consider how to respond to Russia’s military build-up near the Ukrainian border — and tensions between Belarus and Poland.
She used the Riga summit to call for the western alliance to stand united in the face of growing aggression from Moscow.
Ms Truss said: “We want a world where freedom and democracy don’t just survive, they thrive.” And she rejected Kremlin claims that Nato’s actions were provocative.
