30 JANUARY 2023 | NEWS
The Kremlin has suggested that former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson told “a lie” when saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to threaten him with a missile strike.
The former Downing Street incumbent made the claim in a new three-part series for BBC Two, looking at how the West grappled with Mr Putin in the years leading up to the war in Ukraine.
Mr Johnson, talking about a phone call between the two leaders ahead of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, said: “He sort of threatened me at one point and said: ‘Boris, I don’t want to hurt you, but with a missile, it would only take a minute’, or something like that.”
But the Kremlin disputed the claim, saying there were “no threats with missiles” during the bilateral conversation held in February 2022.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, when asked about Mr Johnson’s comments on Monday, said that the British politician’s account was untrue, “or, more precisely, it was a lie”.
Mr Peskov said Mr Johnson may have deliberately lied or failed to understand what the Russian leader was telling him.
“There were no threats with missiles,” Mr Peskov said during a conference call with reporters.
“While talking about security challenges to Russia, President Putin said that if Ukraine joins NATO, the potential deployment of US or other NATO missiles near our borders would mean that any such missile could reach Moscow in minutes.”
Mr Johnson told the documentary producers that the “extraordinary” conversation took place last February, after he had visited Kyiv in a last-ditch attempt to show Western support for Ukraine amid growing fears of a Russian assault.
War would break out only days later, with Russia launching its attack in multiple areas of the country on 24 February.
Mr Johnson said the Russian leader had a “very relaxed tone” and an “air of detachment” as he spoke.
“He was just playing along with my attempts to get him to negotiate,” he added.
