New Cold War for Boris the buffoon
Johnson plays fool in frosty Moscow talks He is slapped down by Russian counterpart
BUNGLING Boris Johnson was slapped down by his Russian counterpart as he played the clown on a visit to Moscow.
In the first trip there by a Foreign Secretary in five years, hapless Mr Johnson began a joint press conference with Sergey Lavrov with a joke about his opposite number snapping up Bentleys.
Hailing an increase in Kettle crisp exports to Russia, he said 300 Bentleys were also sold there last year – “not, I believe, necessarily to employees of the Foreign Ministry”.
It set the scene for a frosty press conference, which he ended by suggesting Mr Lavrov had gone through his coat pockets.
Between the gaffes was a heated exchange as Boris said there was “abundant evidence” of Russian interference in US, German, Danish and French elections. Mr Lavrov said Mr Johnson had himself confirmed Russia had not interfered in the general election and EU referendum – but Boris interrupted: “Not successfully.”
It came after Mr Johnson said Britain was “prepared and able” to respond in kind to cyber-attacks.
The Russian said Mr Johnson was grandstanding, and blamed “insulting and aggressive statements” from London for the poor state of relations between his country and the UK.
He said: “It is no secret that right now our relations are at a low point. You prefer to talk about these reasons publicly, whereas we would prefer to talk about our mutual concerns not publicly before a microphone, but directly.”
Regarding alleged meddling in foreign elections, he added: “We’ve been accused of interfering in Germany and France – though in Germany I should say there is one established fact.
“A couple of years ago we’ve seen the National Security Agency of the United States from its headquarters in Germany were eavesdropping and wiretapping Chancellor [Angela] Merkel’s talks.
“That is being seen just as a matter of history today and no one is concerned... for some reason.”
Turning to Brexit, he added: “My colleague, Boris Johnson, said that he has no evidence that Russia interfered in any way in the Brexit talks, in the Referendum.”
Johnson stunned those watching by interrupting: “Not successfully. Not successfully, I think is the word you need to introduce there.”
Mr Lavrov shot back: “You see, he is afraid that if he doesn’t contradict me that when he gets back to the UK his reputation is going to be ruined in the media.”
Mr Johnson replied: “It’s not my
I’m worried about.
“I think you should recognise that Russian attempts to interfere in our elections and our referendums, whatever they may have been, have not been successful.
“So you can reassure yourself on that point. And I think that’s an important consideration, because had it been successful that would’ve been an entirely different matter.”
An irritated Mr Lavrov said: “The absence of action can never result
It’s hard to have a serious discussion, to get down from the fence you’ve climbed SERGEY LAVROV RUSSIA’S FOREIGN SECRETARY
in anything. I agree with you. But we still would like to get some concrete facts.
“Claiming our ‘unsuccessful meddling’ without facts, it’s very hard to have a serious discussion.
“I think you’ve made all this up in your western company, and right now you are hostage to this subject.
“It is very hard to get down from the fence you’ve climbed.”
Mr Johnson also raised the annexation of Crimea by Russia, saying: “The policy of the Governreputation ment remains the same, which is that we believe there has been a violation of the sovereignty of that country of Ukraine, the first since 1945, and we greatly regret that.
“And we hope there can be a solution to that problem.”
Mr Lavrov replied: “Let me remind you that a referendum has taken place in Crimea.”
The press conference ended with the two men joking about how much they could trust each other.
Mr Johnson said: “I think it is a measure of my trust that as soon as I got into this excellent Foreign Ministry I handed my coat, my hat, my gloves and indeed everything that was in my pockets, secret or otherwise, to Sergey Lavrov in the knowledge that he would look after it and it would come to no harm.”
Mr Lavrov said: “I can say that there was nothing in the pockets of Boris’ coat.” To which Mr Johnson responded: “That means he’s searched it already.”
Mr Johnson’s meeting in Moscow came the day after it emerged a Russian spy may have entered Downing Street.
Stanislav Yezhov acted as the translator for highly sensitive talks between the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Groysman and Theresa May when they met in July.
Yezhov was arrested on Wednesday by the Ukrainian secret services over fears he had been funnelling information from Ukraine to the Kremlin.