Putin’s Taunting of Boris Johnson May Be a Jest

Germany-Russia grief, though, is anything but a laughing matter.

Alexey Danichev, Sputnik, Kremlin pool via AP
Vladimir Putin on December 27, 2022. Alexey Danichev, Sputnik, Kremlin pool via AP

It isn’t every day that Vladimir Putin threatens to hurl a rocket in your general direction, but neither is it out of the ordinary for the unflappable Boris Johnson to take such a taunt in measured stride. In a documentary named “Putin v. the West” that will air on the BBC today, the former leader and Conservative party stalwart said that in the course of a phone conversation with Mr. Putin before Russia invaded Ukraine, the Russian president told him, “Boris, I don’t want to hurt you, but with a missile it would only take a minute.”

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