Kremlin: Boris Johnson lied about Putin threatening him with a missile

The Kremlin claimed today that former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson lied when he said President Vladimir Putin threatened him with a missile strike during a phone call before the start of the invasion of Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that what Johnson said was not true or "more precisely, it was a lie."

Speaking to the BBC about the need for a documentary, Johnson said the Russian leader had threatened him with a missile strike that "would only take a minute".

"At one point he threatened me and said, 'Boris, I don't want to hurt you, but with a missile, it's only going to take a minute' or something like that," Johnson said.

Peskov stated: "There were no missile threats."

"Either it was a deliberate lie - and you have to ask Mr Johnson why he chose to put it that way - or it was an unconscious lie and he didn't really understand what Putin was telling him."

Peskov said Putin had explained to Johnson that if Ukraine joined the NATO alliance, deploying US or NATO missiles near Russia's border would mean any missile could reach Moscow within minutes, and added that there may have been a misunderstanding.

"If that's how this passage was understood, then it's a very uncomfortable situation," Peskov said.

Source: RES-EAP