The past week has reminded us of the friendly relations between Putin's Russia and some prominent supporters to Brexit.
The i held an interview with Dominic Cummings, not in the basement of his parents's castle or the Tapestry Room of his Islington town house, but in a North London pub.
That interview is behind a paywall, but the Politico report has plenty of detail:
In an interview with the i newspaper, Cummings — who led Britain’s Vote Leave Brexit campaign and spectacularly fell out with Johnson in 2020 — declared that the West “should have never got into the whole stupid situation” and claimed sanctions against Russia have had a greater impact on European politics than in Moscow.
The former adviser was scathing of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and comparisons with World War II.
“This is not a replay of 1940 with Zelenskyy as the Churchillian underdog,” he said.
“This whole Ukrainian corrupt mafia state has basically conned us all and we’re all going to get f**ked as a consequence. We are getting f**ked now right?”
Isn't he butch?
Meanwhile, Lord Frost appeared on - and was taken far too seriously by - the One Decision podcast. In the course of his interview he suggested that Russia should be allowed to keep some of its conquests in Ukraine.
Both comments are uncomfortably close to the extreme stance taken by elements of the US Republican Party. This is presumably no coincidence.
ReplyDeleteA very tenuous connection. Being free of the EU has enabled the UK to act decisively and nimbly in supporting Ukraine. The UK has led the way with enforcing sanctions and organising military support. By contrast, the EU’s response has been lamentable throughout with delayed promises only partially fulfilled. Even after Russia’s annexation of Crimea several EU members continued to arm Putin…
ReplyDelete‘EU member states exported weapons to Russia after the 2014 embargo’:
https://www.investigate-europe.eu/en/2022/eu-states-exported-weapons-to-russia/
>> "Missiles, aircraft, rockets, torpedoes, bombs. Russia continued to buy EU weapons until at least 2020. Despite the ongoing embargo, ten member states exported €346 million worth of military equipment, according to public data..."
‘French shipments of military equipment to Russia despite EU embargo and the violation of rule of law principles’:
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/P-9-2022-001087_EN.html
>> "Paris took advantage of the fact that the EU embargo on arms exports to Russia imposed in 2014 was not retroactive to continue deliveries under previously concluded contracts."