MOSCOW, January 30. /TASS/. Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s allegations that Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened him with the use of missiles during a telephone call in February are a lie, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.
Journalists asked Peskov to comment on Johnson’s remarks, cited by the British press, that during a telephone conversation on February 2, 2022, Putin had "sort of threatened" him mentioning missiles.
"What was said by Mr. Johnson is untrue. To be more precise, this is a lie," Peskov insisted, adding that if it was a deliberate lie it raises the question as to why Johnson interpreted the developments this way. Otherwise, in his words, the former British prime minister simply "did not understand" what Putin was talking about. "Then, it makes one feel somewhat awkward about our president’s interlocutors," he noted.
The Kremlin spokesman stressed that he was aware of the details of that telephone call. "I repeat it officially once again: it was a lie. There were no missile strike threats. Touching on challenges to Russia’s security, President Putin noted that in the event of Ukraine’s entry to NATO, the potential deployment of NATO or American missiles near our borders would mean that any missile would be able to reach Moscow in several minutes. If these words were taken this way, <…> it is a very awkward situation," Peskov added.
Britain's Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail on Sunday published Johnson’s words from the Putin vs the West documentary, where the former British leader alleged that during a long and "extraordinary" phone call ahead of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine Putin had tried to intimidate Johnson in response to his warning about the inadmissibility of the operation in Ukraine.