The West will no longer be able to normalize its relations with Putin after the UkraineRussia war. At a conference of his Conservative Party in Blackpool, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called on the West not to repeat the mistakes made after the annexation of Crimea. And he warned that letting Putin win means allowing him to intimidate neighboring countries and give the “green light to autocrats around the world.
The invasion of Ukraine was “a barbaric attack on innocent civilians not seen since the 1940s,” Johnson said, warning that a Russian success in Ukraine would “end all hope of freedom in Moldova and Georgia ” would mean. “There are people in the world, even in Western governments, who think it’s better to agree with tyrants. I think they are profoundly wrong. Normalizing relations with Putin after what happened, as we did in 2014, would mean repeating the same mistake, he noted.
Johnson has expressed skepticism that Putin could be ousted anytime soon, saying he doesn’t think “democratic freedoms are about to flourish” in Russia. Like many of the reasons for the invasion, according to British Prime Minister Putin, “don’t believe at all that Ukraine would have joined NATO” or “this semimystical stuff about the origins of the Russian people… this mixture of Nostradamus and Russian Wikipedia”. “I think Ukraine is afraid,” he added, “because there is a free press and free elections in Ukraine.”
Former European Council President Donald Tusk attacked Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the evening for comparing Ukrainians’ drive for freedom to Britain’s vote for Brexit. “Boris Johnson compares the struggle of the Ukrainians with that of the Brits who voted for Brexit. I still remember Trump and Putin’s enthusiasm for the referendum. Boris, your words offend Ukrainians, British and common sense,” wrote the former Polish Prime Minister, now leader of the European People’s Party, on Twitter.