December 24, 2019 01:32 GMT
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he “was wrong” about Russia and that he no longer believes it is possible to “reset’ relations with Moscow amid many differences separating the two countries.
“What I’ve really changed my mind on was whether it is possible to reset with Russia,” the prime minister told the British Spectator magazine in an item published on December 23.
“I really thought, as I think many foreign secretaries and prime ministers have thought before, that we could start again with Russia. That it’s a great country we fought with against fascism,” he answered after being asked by the magazine “When have you changed your mind” about something.
“It was very, very disappointing that I was wrong,” said Johnson, who was Britain’s foreign secretary from 2016 to 2018 and assumed the premiership in July 2019.
The comments come after Johnson on December 21 said during a visit to Estonia that he hoped to improve relations with Russia but that the two nations had “terrible problems” separating them.
Johnson made those remarks in an interview with Estonia’s ERR news while he was visiting the 850 British soldiers serving in the Baltic country to counter what the West sees as aggression by Russia following its seizure and annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine battling the central government’s forces.
In the ERR interview, Johnson said that “I am like many people in Western Europe who always hope that we can have better relations with Russia. Always we hope.”
“We want to have better commercial relations, we want to have more trade, but it is always so disappointing because we have terrible problems,” he added.
Johnson cited the incident in the English city of Salisbury in which former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, were found unconscious on a park bench on March 4, 2018.
It was later discovered they had been exposed to Novichok, a Soviet-made military nerve agent, and Britain and the West blamed Moscow for the attack. Russia denied involvement.
The Skripals both recovered, but two other British citizens were exposed to the nerve agent in June 2018, apparently by accident; one of them, Dawn Sturgess, died.
© RFE/RL 2019
Looks like PM Johnson is a fast learner, most western leaders take years to figure out Vladolf. ie Trump…
Because of Trump’s obsequiousness to the kremlin shitweasel, filthy scum like Tucker Carlson have declared that they are rooting for putlerstan in its task of murdering and subjugating Ukrainians. This has trickled down to Trump’s base. A huge proportion of them, possibly a majority, absolutely LOVE the tiny poisoner.
I can say this for certain because I monitor many conservative sites. Editorials and commenters are massively pro-putler. Breitbart for one, then Gateway Pundit, Drudge, multiple disqus sites, as well as all the usual putler grovel sites.
I engaged with one yesterday : ex-military: received a torrent of abuse for pointing out the truth.
I’m sure there are fringe elements on both sides Sir Scradge…but…support for the KGB zit is still absent in voting and legislation which is the best measure. Even the best media outlets only manage a percent or two of the public.
It is a massive problem Redders. Putler’s propaganda is succeeding. And when a trumpoid starts to love putler, he/she instantly goes into Ukraine hatred mode. But I think that even an oaf like Trump running things is preferable to the Dems, who are slowly morphing into a sort of variation on JeremIRA CorbLenin’s bunch of Marxist revolutionaries.
This was from 2014, more than 2 years before Trump and NONE of it happened even though it was signed into law. Can you say REAL Russian collusion?…
“Approved military defense items for Ukraine include anti-tank and anti-armor weapons; crew weapons and ammunition; radars that identify and target artillery batteries; fire control, range finder and optical and guidance and control equipment; tactical troop-operated surveillance drones; and secure command and communications equipment.”
My guess would be that it was because Obama only helps communists and muzloids. Should the Dems win next year, I would expect them to revert to the Obama policy, plus yet another ‘reset’. It seems that Ukraine loses out whatever happens.
If Trump is “obsequious” towards Putin, he’s pretty bad at it. He just signed another bill for sanctions against Russia.
I doubt you got a “torrent of abuse.” Truth is not abuse.
Any action that America takes against putlerstan is in spite of not because of Trump. The GOP wants to make life difficult for the kremlin; Trump doesn’t. He made his position very clear during his election campaign. In a notorious interview with George Stepanopulous, he unambiguously defended putlerstan’s’ ‘right’ to take Crimea because ‘you have to respect that they want to be Russian’, or words to that effect.
Trumpkov has a habit of befriending or hiring vile putler shills. The list is almost endless: Manafort, Roger Stone, Carter Page, Michael Savage, Giuliani, Jared Kushner, Trump Jr, Wilbur Ross, Anthony Scaramucci, Rex Tillerson, Jeff Sessions, Nigel Farage, Michael Flynn, George Papadopolous, Michael Cohen, Rick Gates, Michael Caputo etc etc. These sewer rats have all done everything in their power to help putler and undermine Ukraine. Trump himself revealed his utter contempt and hatred for Ukraine in his conversations with the very decent and principled diplomat Kurt Volker. The American public’s minds have been poisoned against Ukraine by these fucks. Fox News has now got into the act. One of its stars; Tucker Carlson, has announced that he is rooting for Russia in its war against Ukraine. This is all due to Trump. Rooting for a filthy fascist power that hates America as it occupies land and commits atrocities against a friendly democracy is about as un-American as you can possibly get.
And yes I did receive a torrent of abuse from a massive trump fan; an army nurse who absolutely adores the kremlin shitweasel. Such people would never taken such a position pre-Trump. Now, thanks to Trumpkov’s constant praise of putler, his media advocates are all pro-putler. I already mentioned Carlson, there are also assholes like Alex Jones, Breitbart (prop: Steve Bannon) and Michael Savage (a close friend of Trump). Giuliani’s bullshit about it being ‘Ukraine that interfered in the 2016 election, not Russia’ has permeated into US news taking points as if it actually had some credibility.
Next step Boris, sanctions for the Skripal poisoning. I’m sure there are plenty of Russian targets in London.
I’d love him to go after that putlerite bastard Abramovich, but I guess he’s terrified of being accused of anti-semitism. Ironic, because the entire putler murder gang is anti-semitic. Putler tolerates Abramovich became a) he never interferes in putinazi politics and b) he gifted putler a luxury yacht.