Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to deny Russia's responsibility for the attempted murder of a former spy and his daughter last March, attacking the former as a lowlife who betrayed his country.
Former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found slumped on a public bench in the English city of Salisbury in March. Britain says they were poisoned with a nerve agent administered by Russian intelligence officers.
Russia denies involvement in the affair, which has deepened its international isolation.
"I see that some of our colleagues are pushing the theory that Mr Skripal was almost some kind of human rights activist," Putin said at an energy forum in Moscow when asked about the case.
"He was simply a spy. A traitor to the motherland. He's simply a scumbag, that's all," Putin added, in remarks that drew applause from parts of the audience.
The Russian leader, a former intelligence officer himself, said the Skripal scandal had been artificially exaggerated, but said he thought it would fade from the headlines and that the sooner it quietened down the better.
Putin also denied any responsibility for the death of Dawn Sturgess who passed away from Novichok exposure after her boyfriend unknowingly gave her a discarded perfume bottle containing the poison.
"What, did some guys rock up and start poisoning homeless people over there?" said Putin, repeating an inaccurate description of Sturgess and her partner used by some Russian state media. "What rubbish."
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"We didn't need to poison anyone over there. This traitor Skripal was caught, he was punished and did five years in prison. We let him go, he left the country and he continued to cooperate there and consult some intelligence services. So what?"
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Putin said spy scandals were nothing new.
"Did problems between intelligence services start yesterday?" quipped Putin.
"As is well known, espionage, like prostitution, is one of the world's oldest professions."
Putin trashes poisoned ex-spy Skripal: 'He's simply a scumbag' (Reuters)