Putin: The head of the Kremlin personally threatened him, reports Boris Johnson

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“Just a minute” – Putin personally threatened him, reports Boris Johnson

Status: 5:15 p.m | Reading time: 2 minutes

“Boris, I don’t want to hurt you, but with a rocket it would only take a minute”

Shortly before the start of the war in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin apparently tried to intimidate former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Johnson reports in a BBC documentary.

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“Boris, I don’t want to hurt you, but with a rocket it would only take a minute”: Vladimir Putin threatened him like this or something similar, British ex-Prime Minister Johnson recalled in an interview.

DAccording to British ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Russian President Vladimir Putin made personal threats against him shortly before the start of the Ukraine war. “He kind 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,” Johnson told the British PA news agency in a BBC documentary airing on May 20 should be broadcast on Monday.

“Judging by the very relaxed tone and the level of composure he seemed to display, he must have been toying with my attempts to get him to negotiate,” Johnson continued.

Like other Western leaders, the then prime minister had tried to steer Putin off course shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The statements are said to have been made.

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Johnson said in the documentary that he told Putin shortly before the invasion of Ukraine that Ukraine’s NATO membership was not imminent. He also warned that an invasion would mean “more NATO, not less NATO” on Russia’s borders.

The Kremlin dismissed Johnson’s statements as “lies”. “What Mr Johnson said is not true. More precisely, it is a lie. There was no missile threat,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Monday.

Boris Johnson resigned as Conservative leader and prime minister in July 2022 under pressure from his party. The reason for this was the Partygate affair about celebrations in Downing Street during the corona lockdowns and his handling of other scandals. His loose handling of the truth was also repeatedly criticized.

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