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 |  Subject: 'He's talking tripe!' How Boris Johnson mocked Putin for Russian economic downturn  Sun Jan 19, 2020 3:42 am | |
| VLADIMIR PUTIN revealed yesterday that he intends to completely reshape Russian politics and amend the country's constitution. He also announced a series of domestic policy proposals in an attempt to fend off Russia's creeping economic struggles, something that Prime Minister Boris Johnson has brutally mocked the Kremlin for in the past.
Mr Johnson made the scathing remarks about President Putin and his country's economy in his June 2019 Telegraph column, in which he took apart the Kremlin chief's criticism of the UK. The Russian leader launched an attack on Western democracies, claiming last year in an interview with the Financial Times that “the liberal idea has become obsolete". He wrote: "It has come into conflict with the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population.”
But while Mr Putin was typically assured in his assessment, Prime Minister Johnson highlighted that the Russian economy has struggled precisely because of anti-democratic tendencies in Moscow.
He even added that the Russian President was "talking the most tremendous tripe".
On the Russian economy, Mr Johnson said: "I don’t want to put too fine a point on it, Vladimir, but there are some countries where capitalism is believed to be in the hands of oligarchs and cronies, where journalists are shot, and where 'liberal values' are derided.
"...And where according to the Russian statistics agency Rosstat, a third of the country cannot afford to buy more than two pairs of shoes per year; where 12 percent of the population still has to rely on an outdoor toilet, and where real incomes have declined for each of the past five years."
Due to the country's economic woes, President Putin admitted in his annual address this week that birth rates in the country needed addressing, that low incomes played a part in the problem, and that healthcare in the country also needed improving.
Expert on Russian politics, Dr Ben Noble, told Express.co.uk in October that some Russians were also growing impatient with the Kremlin's priorities, highlighting that the country's economy is experiencing stagnation and even contractions leading to decreased wages in some sectors.
He said: “There is a level of resistance to Russian state spending on foreign projects while domestically things are either remaining the same or are getting worse.
“There was some polling data earlier this year that suggests Russians aren’t quite on board as much as the Kremlin would like."
Mr Johnson also argued in his column that Brexit would provide the perfect opportunity to prove Mr Putin wrong in a glowing assessment of business in Britain.
He added: "The economic blessings of that modern British culture are obvious. We lead the world in cutting-edge technologies of all kinds – from bioscience to batteries. We have the world’s greatest universities, with an unrivalled record in producing original research.
"We are the home of innovation and creativity; and there are two basic advantages we have, the fundamental guarantors and guardians of this sense of social freedom. There is democracy, and there is the rule of law. "
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1229602/putin-news-boris-johnson-brutally-mocked-president-for-russia-economic-downfall-spt |
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