Boris slams Russia over ‘interference’

Alleged cyber attacks raised during foreign secretary’s visit to Moscow

Boris Johnson has clashed publicly with his Russian counterpart over Crimea and Moscow’s alleged cyber attacks on the West, as the two men met in Moscow.

Sergey Lavrov denied claims the Kremlin had interfered in democratic elections online and accused Mr Johnson of being a “hostage” of untrue Western narratives on the issue.

But in a series of extraordinarily frank exchanges, Mr Johnson insisted there was “abundant evidence” of Russian interference in polls in the US, Germany, Denmark and France.

When the Russian foreign minister told a press conference in Moscow that Mr Johnson himself had confirmed Russia had not interfered in the

UK’S election and Brexit referendum, the foreign secretary interrupted to add: “Not successfully.”

The clash came after Mr Johnson issued a warning to the Kremlin that Britain was “prepared and able” to respond in kind to cyber attacks.

Speaking after more than an hour of talks on the first visit to Russia by a British foreign secretary for five years, both men acknowledged that relations between the two countries were at their worst for many years.

Nevertheless they accepted their countries had a duty to work together as fellow permanent members of the UN Security Council on issues affecting global security like Syria, Iran and North Korea.

The two men insisted they had established a level of personal trust, with Mr Johnson joking he had even handed his coat with “everything in my pockets, secret or otherwise” to Mr Lavrov when he arrived at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building. Mr Lavrov joked back: “I can say that there was nothing in the pockets of Boris’s coat,” to which Mr Johnson responded in surprise: “So you have searched it already?”

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson stands in front of St Basil’s Cathedral during a visit to Red Square in Moscow yesterday. Picture: Getty Images.

Mr Johnson with Sergey Lavrov.