Boris Johnson has compared Russian President Vladimir Putin to a “fat boy in Dickens” who makes hollow threats regarding the use of nuclear weapons.
It was a real bombshell from the former British prime minister, who claimed that Putin would not act on his threats to use weapons of mass destruction.
Johnson, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, said if Russia were to use nuclear weapons, it would leave the world in “complete economic paralysis”.
He said the world should not obsess over Putin, as he would never use nuclear weapons despite threatening to do so on several occasions.
“Putin wants to present it as a nuclear stand-off between Nato and Russia,” Johnson said, as reported in The Times.
“Nonsense. He’s not going to use nuclear weapons, Okay, he’s like the fat boy in Dickens, he wants to make our flesh creep. He wants us to think about it. He’s never going to do it.”
Johnson, prone to controversy himself, claimed that the world leaders should rather focus their attention on offering support to Ukraine and not on trying to stop Russia.
“It’s difficult to work out what’s going to happen in UK politics, let alone in the Kremlin,” he added.
“What we’ve got to focus on is supporting Ukraine and giving Volodymyr Zelensky the tools he needs to finish the job. And they can win, and they will win – give them the tanks.”
Ukraine President Zelensky joined the meeting virtually and added to Johnson’s comments by claiming the world has the solution to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.
“The vaccine against Russian tyranny is available,” he said.
And that vaccine seems as if it is supplying weapons to Ukraine faster than at the beginning of the war.
Compiled by Dylan Bettencourt
Pictured above: Boris Johnson and Vladimir Putin
Image source: Pippa Fowles/DowningSt
