German Chancellor denies UK Johnson's claims of Russian threat

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
5 Feb 2023 18:07
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Johnson is notorious for exaggeration, spinning facts, or even outright lying, be it in his speeches to his constituency or in parliament.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz addressing the German nation during Victory Day, May 8, 2022 (Britta Pedersen/AFP)

Refuting Boris Johnson's claims, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Vladimir Putin has neither threatened him nor Germany.

“No, Putin didn’t threaten me or Germany. During our telephone calls, our very different perspectives on the war in Ukraine have become very clear,” Scholz said in an interview for German media commenting on Boris Johnson's hefty claims.

Scholz has been consistent with his stance on the crisis in Ukraine blaming it wholly on Russia, claiming that Putin's military operation was uncalled for.

“We cannot simply accept that, because it's a fundamental violation of the European peace order. That is why we support Ukraine financially, through humanitarian aid and also with arms,” Scholz said.

In a documentary that aired last week, Boris Johnson recalled an alleged threat by Putin, which says, “Boris, I don’t want to hurt you but, with a missile, it would only take a minute or something like that. Jolly.”

Johnson is notorious for exaggeration, spinning facts, or even outright lying, be it in his speeches to his constituency or in parliament. British media had even made a compilation of his "worst lies, gaffes, and scandals" after his disgraceful resignation last summer.

Johnson's comments about an alleged "missile" threat were met with alarm by the Kremlin, questioning whether Johnson's allegations were an honest tongue slip, an interpreter's fault, or a case of active lying. The Kremlin clarified that Putin's conversation with Boris in regard to missiles was specifically about potential NATO and US missiles in Ukraine in the scenario where Ukraine would join NATO. “The potential deployment of NATO or American missiles at our borders [would] mean that any missile [would be able to] reach Moscow in a matter of minutes.”

Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists, “Once again I officially repeat: This is a lie, there were no threats with missiles.”

Boris Johnson was one of several Western leaders Putin met with as the long-running security crisis in the Donbass escalated in January and February 2022, culminating in Russia launching a military operation to "demilitarize" and "de-Nazify" Ukraine amid concerns about Kiev's ambitions to crush the Donbass republics and join the Western bloc.

In another context, Scholz dismissed the parallel which Putin drew in his Stalingrad Liberation speech as a “series of abstruse historical comparisons," in which he compared the German Leopard 2 tanks in Ukraine to Nazi Germany's tanks during Operation Barbarossa. He justified that the German tanks were delivered to Ukraine for purposes of defense and that this decision was being coordinated and assessed with US and NATO leaders to avoid escalation.

It was even reported earlier today that Ukraine could receive up to 160 Leopard I tanks from the German defense industry stocks.

The government of Ukraine has come under fire even by sympathetic Western media for its actions to impose a repressive campaign against the Orthodox Church because of its alleged ties to Russia, ban nearly a dozen 'pro-Russian' political parties, and strengthen state control over television and print media.

With questions about the whereabouts of the $100+ billion in US and EU aid to Kiev and evidence that weapons sent to help fight Russia have ended up in the hands of criminal gangs in Europe, concerns about corruption in the Kiev regime have increased in recent years. Ukraine has consistently been ranked among the most corrupt countries in Europe.