Boris Johnson, batting away the Kremlin’s claim that he is the most anti-Russian leader in the West, has come up with a remarkable rejoinder.
According to the prime minister, he can’t be anti-Russian – because misname is Boris.
Speaking at a Nato press conference in Brussels, Johnson dismissed comments from Vladimir Putin’s spokesperson that he is “the most active participant in the race to be anti-Russian”.
He said: “I think it’s very very important for everyone to understand that I don’t think there is a single person round the table in Nato or the G7 who is against Russians or the Russian people.
“Least of all me. I am probably the only prime minister in UK history to be called Boris, I have that distinction.”
Johnson added that he is “not remotely anti-Russian” – and it was Putin’s “inhuman and barbaric” invasion of Ukraine that he opposes.
“You can be sympathetic towards ordinary Russians who are being badly led but you can be deeply hostile to the decisions of Vladimir Putin and the way he is leading his country,” he said.
Elsewhere, Johnson insisted that Ukraine can “certainly win” against Russia.
He said “the situation for the Ukrainians is grim, miserable”, but he praised “Churchillian” leader Volodymyr Zelensky and said: “I think Ukraine can certainly win.”
In an interview with the BBC, following a day of intense diplomacy with Nato and G7 allies in Brussels, Johnson said: “There’s a sense in which Putin has already failed or lost because I think that he had literally no idea that the Ukrainians were going to mount the resistance that they are and he totally misunderstood what Ukraine is.
“And far from extinguishing Ukraine as a nation, he is solidifying it.”
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