Boris’slams Russia’s ‘childish’ Nazi pic jibe
FOREIGN SEC S STINGING LETTER TO RIVAL LAVROV
BORIS Johnson wrote to his Russian rival calling him “childish” for sending him a pic of the England team doing a Nazi salute.
The Foreign Secretary penned a stinging reply to Sergey Lavrov telling him to “grow up” after the stunt.
Lavrov sent the humiliating 1938 photo after Boris compared Putin’s World Cup this summer to Hitler’s Olympics in Berlin following the poisoning of ex-spy Sergei Skripal and daughter Yulia in Salisbury.
A diplomatic source said: “Some of the things Lavrov has been spouting are unbelievable. The propaganda is reaching new levels so Boris had to get something official in writing.”
“Boris said Lavrov needed to grow up. He told him to stop being so childish.”
Lavrov’s taunt added to tensions after mass expulsions of diplomats and sanctions on Russian businessmen linked to President Putin following the attempted murders two months ago.
It was one of a series of increasingly bizarre claims from the Kremlin.
Lavrov accused us of “playing children’s games” and claimed we could be responsible for the attack, adding British security services “are well known for their capacity to act with a licence to kill”. The two have clashed before. At a press conference in December, as Lavrov said there was no evidence Russia meddled in Britain’s EU referendum Boris quipped: “Not successfully.”
When Boris joked he had let Mr Lavrov look after his coat, the Russian said there was nothing in the pockets. Boris replied: “So you’ve searched it already!”
The 1938 photo shows legends including Sir Stanley Matthews giving the Nazi salute before playing Germany in Berlin.
They had been ordered to do it as part of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s policy of appeasing Adolf Hitler.