Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Ukraine early in the war to abandon ongoing peace talks, a claim Ukraine has previously denied. Ta.
Broadcaster Tucker Carlson sat down with Russian dictator Putin this week in an interview that aired Thursday night. This was the first Western journalist to do so since the war in Ukraine resumed in 2022. He also gave American and European listeners the benefit of a very Russian perspective on the situation in Ukraine. While reflecting on Eastern Europe’s past 1,400 years of history and criticizing the CIA for blowing up the Nord Stream pipeline, Putin also noted that Russia and Ukraine had come close to a peace deal early on, but that this ambition was He also stated that he felt that he had been shattered by this. interference.
Putin insisted that Russia was ready to enter into negotiations at any time, but he also said that a precondition for doing so is that the United States suspend arms deliveries and wait for it to end “within a few days.” Weeks before negotiations were to begin, and he never refused to negotiate, although his attempts to portray him as dovish somewhat hurt him. Looking back on 2022, President Putin mentioned his meeting with David Arahamia, an ally of Zelenskyy and a senior member of the Ukrainian parliament who was involved in the Istanbul negotiations.
Had the deal been signed, Putin said, “war hostilities would have already ended a year and a half ago.” Rather, he claimed, Britain was involved and Ukraine intended to “comply with Mr. Johnson’s demands and persuasion.” President Putin told Tucker Carlson: [talked Ukraine] We missed that chance. Well, you missed it. you made a mistake. “
Putin said his desire was to “return” to the deal, pointing out that although Prime Minister Boris Johnson has long since left, the war that the Russian leader says politicians encouraged is still going on. Stated.
In this photo published by the Sputnik news agency on Friday, February 9, 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to questions during an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. right). 6th, 2024. (Gabriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin pool photo, via AP)
Tucker’s interview is not the first time such claims have been aired. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: I claimed that last year Prime Minister Boris Johnson “forbids” Ukraine from seeking peace and “calls for the continuation of hostilities against Russia.”
However, Ukraine’s Alakamoa insisted that Boris Johnson’s visit had nothing to do with the decision not to sign the document, as Ukraine had no intention of signing the document in any case. Mr. Arakamuia said: times Report from the beginning of this yearstated that Russia’s main interest was to extract from Ukraine a promise of Finnish neutrality and a guarantee that it would not join NATO.
These demands were never accepted at the conference, because such a promise was beyond his authority as a negotiator and had to be a personal meeting between President Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. In any case, Ukraine would not have been able to accept it, he said. He simply did not believe that if Russia declared neutrality he would act in good faith and respect it.
Boris Johnson himself said of claims that he had broken the peace deal: “This is complete nonsense and nothing but Russian propaganda.” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he certainly believed any deal between Ukraine and Russia would be “pretty vile” and promised Britain “1000 per cent” support for Kiev and told it to “just fight”. However, this was not a command, but rather an intention. Context of how to fight aggression.
President Putin has repeatedly emphasized that he is open to dialogue and settlement negotiations on the Ukraine issue, but he has also made clear that this will not come without a price. The Russians, who indicated they were not dovish, said that in return for negotiations, the United States should stop sending arms to Ukraine and then give it time. Probably to give Russia a chance to strengthen its position on the battlefield. He told Carlson: “If we really want to stop fighting, we need to stop supplying weapons. It will be over in a few weeks. That’s it. Then we can agree on some terms.”
Putin also claimed that progress in the war so far had shown that inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia would be “difficult, if at all possible”, and that it would be futile to try to continue fighting. did. “That will never happen,” he insisted, expressing his belief that Western leaders now realize that. Russia is “ready for this dialogue” if NATO wants to reach a compromise “with dignity,” Putin said, a remark that some in Washington may interpret as teasing. mentioned in.
Some of Putin’s claims have sparked outrage, but even the fact that the interview took place before publication sparked outrage, with Tucker Carlson accused of agreeing to meet with the Russian dictator as a “traitor.” I was branded. Eurocrat head and former Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt has talked about adding Karlsson to the EU’s sanctions list, but Hungary has said it would veto such a move.
EU politician threatens sanctions against Tucker Carlson over meeting with President Vladimir Putinhttps://t.co/MVWiqaheHs
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 7, 2024
