Johnson’s revelations about Putin’s threats

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke about a conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the eve of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

His revelations were featured in the documentary “Putin vs. the West”, which airs tonight on BBC 2. Johnson said Putin threatened him with missiles during a phone call ahead of the Russian invasion, quotes Air Force:

“At some point, he sort of threatened me and said, ‘Boris, I don’t want to hurt you, but with a rocket it will only take a minute,’ or something like that.”

The film tells about Putin’s interaction with world leaders before the start of the war. The long telephone conversation took place last February, and the Russian leader’s words came after Johnson’s warning that a war in Ukraine would be disastrous. The ex-premier suggests:

“I think that, judging by his [Путина] very calm tone, by the detachment that he had, he simply played along with my attempts to persuade him to negotiate.

Johnson, he said, tried to convey to the Russian president that Ukraine would not join NATO any time soon and warned that any invasion would mean “more NATO, not less NATO” at Russia’s borders. To which Putin allegedly asked:

“Boris, you say that Ukraine is not going to join NATO in the near future. What does it mean in the near future?”

And Johnson replied, “Well, she’s not going to join NATO for the foreseeable future. You know that very well.”

BBC correspondents note that it is not known how serious Putin’s threats were. However, “given previous Russian attacks on the UK, including the poisoning of the Skripals in Salisbury, any threat from the Russian leader was likely to be taken seriously by Johnson.”

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