LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) – Russian officials lined up to celebrate the fall of Boris Johnson on Thursday, with a prominent tycoon who turned the British leader into a “stupid clown” who had finally gotten his fair reward for arm Ukraine against Russia.
Johnson was expected to announce his resignation after he was abandoned by ministers and lawmakers from his Conservative Party who said he was no longer fit to govern. The Kremlin said he was not a fan of the British leader either, whose parents christened him Boris in honor of a white Russian emigrant.
“We don’t like it, we don’t like it either,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. He said reports that Johnson would soon resign as prime minister did not worry the Kremlin.
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Other Russians were more brutal.
Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska told Telegram that it was a “glorious ending” for a “stupid clown” whose consciousness would be affected by “tens of thousands of lives in this senseless conflict in Ukraine.”
Maria Zakharova, the top spokeswoman for Russia’s foreign ministry, said Johnson’s downfall was a symptom of the West’s decline, which she said was torn apart by the political, ideological and economic crisis.
“The moral of the story is: don’t seek to destroy Russia,” Zakharova said. “Russia can’t be destroyed. You can break your teeth and then drown them.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as Russia continues its attack on Ukraine in Kyiv, Ukraine, on June 17, 2022. Presidential Press Service ‘Ukraine through REUTERS
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Even before President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Johnson had repeatedly criticized Putin, making him a ruthless and possibly irrational Kremlin leader who endangered the world with his crazy ambitions. .
After the invasion, Johnson made Britain one of Ukraine’s largest Western supporters, sending weapons, imposing on Russia some of the most severe sanctions in modern history, and urging Ukraine to defeat Russia’s great armed forces.
Johnson’s support for Ukraine was such that some in Kyiv affectionately knew him as “Borys Johnsoniuk.” Sometimes he ended his speeches with “Slava Ukrain” or “glory in Ukraine.”
Johnson, the face of the 2016 Brexit campaign that won a resounding election victory in 2019 before taking the UK out of the European Union, even spoke Russian in February and told the Russian people he did not believe the “unnecessary and bloody.” the war was in his name.
Russia repeatedly dismissed him as a poorly prepared jester who was trying to hit far beyond Britain’s real weight.
Zakharova happily portrayed him as the perpetrator of his own downfall.
“Boris Johnson was hit by a boomerang fired by himself,” he said. “His comrades-in-arms handed him over.”
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Edited by Mark Trevelyan
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