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Boris Johnson claims Russia’s hostility to UK and West is as bad as end of Cold War | |
(about 2 hours later) | |
Russia’s hostility towards the UK and the West has not been as bad since the end of the Cold War, Boris Johnson has claimed. | Russia’s hostility towards the UK and the West has not been as bad since the end of the Cold War, Boris Johnson has claimed. |
The Foreign Secretary accused Moscow of trying to destabilise the West with a campaign of invasions, killings and attempts to undermine democratic elections. | |
Mr Johnson described the current situation of hostility as a “tragedy”. | |
This comes ahead of his planned visit to Russia this week, and talks with his counterpart, the Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, in Moscow. | |
He said at the end of the Cold War he had hopes that relations would improve, but that this now seemed like a “total illusion”. | |
“Russia has not been so hostile to the UK or to western interests since the end of the Cold War," he told The Sunday Times. | |
“In the Crimea, capturing a part of sovereign European territory from someone else's country and holding it for the first time since 1945. Add their destabilising activities in the western Balkans. | |
”We literally have Russian fingerprints on an assassination attempt in Montenegro. Look at what they're doing with cyber-warfare, with attempted disruption of democratic processes in the UK.” | |
He said that although he had seen “no evidence” Russian influence affected the outcome of the EU referendum, he had seen evidence of Russian “trolling on Facebook”. | He said that although he had seen “no evidence” Russian influence affected the outcome of the EU referendum, he had seen evidence of Russian “trolling on Facebook”. |
It is not the first time Mr Johnson has criticised Russia. During a speech in the House of Commons, he accused the country of behaving “as though there is indeed a new Cold War”. | |
But despite his criticism of the post-Soviet state, the Foreign Secretary has vowed to find a way to work with them, adding that Britain needed to “collaborate” with Russia to find a way of defeating Islamist terrorism. | |
He said he would be “pushing very hard to understand” the Russians’ view of “the endgame” in Syria. | He said he would be “pushing very hard to understand” the Russians’ view of “the endgame” in Syria. |