BORIS: PUTIN’S JUST LIKE HITLER
Tournament will be used as ‘sickening’ publicity stunt
BORIS Johnson has claimed Vladimir Putin is using the World Cup as a propaganda exercise like the 1936 Berlin Olympics under Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime.
The Foreign Secretary is under growing pressure from MPs to issue a clear warning to football fans about the risks of travelling to this summer’s showpiece in Russia.
In the aftermath of the Salisbury poisoning, Mr Johnson declined to rule out the Foreign Office explicitly urging fans not to attend unless their safety can be guaranteed.
He said: “There is an issue, I am not going to hide it, there is a discussion. We need to consider
that issue.” This followed warnings of possible violent attacks by Russian thugs.
Senior MPs have demanded that the Foreign Office urgently clarifies its advice because of the safety threat.
Labour backbencher Ian Austin said: “Ministers must look at this urgently.
“They must hurry up and clarify the situation because fans need to know whether it’s safe to travel.
“I think it could be very dangerous and people need to think about it very carefully.”
Concerns over the World Cup reemerged yesterday as Mr Johnson was quizzed by the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee about the Government’s response to the Salisbury outrage earlier this month.
Former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia are critically ill after being poisoned with a “military grade” nerve agent called Novichok, developed in Soviet laboratories during the Cold War.
Mr Johnson told the Committee that the idea of President Putin’s regime hosting the World Cup was an “emetic prospect”. The Foreign Secretary said: “I think the comparison with 1936 is certainly right.
“I think it is an emetic prospect, frankly, to think of Putin glorying in this sporting event.”
The 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin has gone down in history for being exploited by Hitler to showcase his Nazi regime to the world and to promote his vile views on racial supremacy.
German Jewish athletes were banned from competing at the event.
The dictator was left embarrassed, however, when the black US athlete Jesse Owens finished as a four-time gold medallist.
But while Mr Johnson ruled out the Government calling for a boycott of the World Cup, he acknowledged there were safety concerns for fans.
He added: “I think on balance it would be wrong to punish them or the team who have worked on this for a long time, given up their lives to it. I think it would be a pity for them.
“But your point about the safety of fans is well made and well taken – this is of crucial importance to us.
“And we do indeed need to have an urgent conversation with the Russians about how they propose to fulfil their obligations under their Fifa contract to look after all fans.” These worries had been exacerbated by the expulsion of the British Embassy official who had been put in charge of overseeing fan safety.
He was among 23 UK diplomats expelled from Russia earlier this week in a tit-for-tat retaliation at sanctions imposed by Theresa May in response to the Salisbury incident.
Mr Johnson added: “We must have a proper discussion at a UK national level about how we proceed because one of the consequences of the expulsions we had from Moscow is that we lost the officer who was going to be responsible for the fans.
“You can’t imagine anything more counter-productive for the UK’s ability to help fans in Russia.” He also pointed out that only about 24,000 England fans had applied for tickets to the World Cup in Russia, compared with 94,000 who went to the last tournament held in Brazil in 2014.
“But there are still a considerable number who want to go and we have to think of their welfare,” the Foreign Secretary said.
Mr Johnson added that, despite the suspension of high-level diplomatic contacts between the UK and Russian governments as a result of the Salisbury incident, police chiefs from both countries were in talks about fan safety at the sporting event. And he pointed out that Russia was obliged by world football governing body Fifa to guarantee the safety of fans attending the contest.
He said: “We are cooperating at a police level with the Russians. I think there are questions now about how that cooperation will go on.
“And my challenge now to the Russian authorities is to show that the 24,000 UK applicants for tickets to the football World Cup are going to be well treated and safe in Russia.”
At the Committee hearing, Mr Austin said: “The idea of Putin using this as a PR exercise to gloss over the brutal and corrupt regime for which he’s responsible fills me with horror.” Mrs May also addressed the issue at Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday. She said: “We want British football fans to be able to be safe.
“We are working very closely with the police in looking at what arrangements will be in place to support the England football fans who travel to Russia.”
A Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Mr Johnson’s apparent comparison between Russia and Hitler’s Germany was unacceptable.
Maria Zakharova said: “Such parallels are unacceptable and are beneath the head of a diplomatic body of a European state.”
‘Fans need to know whether it will be safe to travel’
IF NOTHING else, the war of words is ramping up. After several highly charged speeches about the Russian President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has gone further still, all but comparing the Russian leader with Hitler. The forthcoming World Cup, to be held in Russia this summer, will play the same role in glorifying that country as the 1936 Olympics did for Germany, he said.
He followed that up with warning that the person responsible for the safety of visiting England fans was one of the 23 diplomats expelled by the Kremlin.
What Mr Johnson did not do, however, was advise the England fans not to go. Instead he said that he did not want to punish the England team by preventing them from attending – understandable – and hinted that England fans might at some point be advised against going there themselves, which was less understandable.
Unless there is a sudden outbreak of peace between this country and Russia, which looks unlikely given the way the Kremlin and Mr Putin are behaving, there are serious issues at stake here. For a start it is almost certain that the Russian leader approved an attack against two people on British soil. Second, there is a real issue about the safety of England fans. There are real fears Mr Putin might allow his goons to run riot against the fans themselves.
The Foreign Secretary should stop prevaricating and issue a proper advisory notice: either it is safe for fans to travel to Russia or they should be told not to go. As for comparing Mr Putin with Hitler, we can only issue a fervent prayer that history will not repeat itself.