& a second occurrence... So it obviously wasn't just an incidental but reflects the editorial line.

The one I had found was also essentially a smeary hit piece on Putin:


When Putin came to Manchester for lunch

‘He’s the little one in the ghastly crimplene suit’

"...one Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin — then seen as a reformer, but today the man we know as Russia’s ruthless dictator."

-It goes on to infer he knocked off his old mentor and friend Sobchak...then of course:

"...Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine."

https://manchestermill.co.uk/when-putin-came-to-manchester-for/