Quote Originally Posted by Geoff Parkstone View Post
Yay, were getting there, in a few more pages time it will be shown that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is Johnson's fault...
Well if one was explaining matters to a simpleton maybe! but as with all these things the reasons are multi faceted!

Undoubtedly the Tories are up to their armpits in dodgy dealings with the Russians and London is the centre of dodgy financial dealings, are opaque company and property registration and laws being to blame.

We know Putin's spies have murdered at least two opponents on UK soil and used biological weapons to attempt another, which killed a UK citizen.

The EU became complacent over Russia, even when with his actions in Chechnya, Georgia, Eastern Ukraine, Syria and Crimea saw illegal occupation of land, use of chemical weapons and probable war crimes, no attempt was made to review how he was dealt with.

The US were more concerned with china and believed Russia was a EU problem and (not unreasonably) objected to covering the cost of protecting the EU when member states were not paying the full whack themselves.

Germany made a serious strategic mistake in its relationship with Russia, but also its history has made its attitude to defence problematic.

Farage and his cohorts were only to happy to cosy up to dubious Russians to suit his own agenda and he is still an apologist. Trump was just completely whacko, I think the strong man image of Putin appealed to him, unfortunately his threats re NATO emboldened Putin.

I would hope that (unfortunately for Ukrainians) what has happened has made the various world leaders and the EU sit up and consider what they do next.

But one can easily compare the way Johnson operates with Putin - surround oneself with yes persons, lie, cheat, put forward propaganda which bears no relation to the truth, appoint sympathisers to jobs in the countries institutions, funnel government money to cronies, political interference with the electoral commission, gerrymandering with boundaries and introduce voter ID, all to disadvantage political opponents.

Just because Johnson isn't shooting or poisoning opponents doesn't make what is happening dangerous to democracy.