Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson responded to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s allegations from his interview with Tucker Carlson.
During the interview posted to X on Thursday night, Putin claimed that Johnson “dissuaded” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from coming to an agreement with Russia and avoiding a war entirely. According to Putin, an agreement had already been outlined in a document.
“He put his signature and then he himself said, ‘We were ready to sign it, and the war would have been over long ago. However, Prime Minister Johnson came to talk us [Ukraine] out of it, and we’ve missed that chance,’” Putin said via a translator.
Johnson wrote an op-ed in the Daily Mail on Friday and also issued a video response the outlet posted on X. The former prime minister joined in a chorus of political leaders that condemned Carlson to agree to an interview but was among the few mentioned by name by Putin.
“Around the world, people are watching that ludicrous interview with Vladimir Putin conducted by Tucker Carlson, and we must not fall for this tissue of lies above all for the notion that Putin is somehow fated to succeed in Ukraine. On the contrary, he is doomed to failure,” Johnson said in the video.
In his editorial, Johnson denied what he called the “ludicrous suggestion” that the U.K. government convinced Ukraine to “fight on.”
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“When Tucker Carlson went to the Kremlin he had a function well known to history. He was to be the stooge of the tyrant, the dictaphone to the dictator and a traitor to journalism,” Johnson wrote. “In his fawning, guffawing, slack-jawed happiness at having a ‘scoop’, he betrayed his viewers and listeners around the world. He didn’t ask tough questions.”
Russia has suffered over 300,000 casualties among its army, which is about 80% of the force. Putin insisted during the interview that his country still has a chance to beat Ukraine as long as the United States stops interfering.
