The Kremlin is hailing the downfall of Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who said he wanted to “lead the West” against Russia in February.
Prime Minister Johnson, who has been ousted as leader of Britain’s governing Conservative (Tory) Party and will be replaced as PM once a new one is selected — if not sooner — was regarded by Moscow as one of Russia’s primary antagonists in the West, so his impending ejection from his country’s highest office is being welcomed there.
“His comrades-in-arms turned him in,” gloated Maria Zakharova, the Russian foreign ministry’s chief spokeswoman, describing Johnson as having been “hit by a boomerang launched by himself.”
“The moral of the story is: do not seek to destroy Russia,” she claimed, adding: “Russia cannot be destroyed. You can break your teeth on it — and then choke on them.”
In fact, it is not clear that Russia-related foreign policy had much to do with Johnson’s premiership crashing to ground so soon after he won his party’s first substantial parliamentary since the 1980s, although the economic fallout from the Western sanctions war with Moscow has contributed to Britain’s cost-of-living crisis.
The immediate cause for his downfall was his decision to appoint one Christopher Pincher MP as a party whip despite a history of harassment allegations against him. This appointment was followed by him allegedly getting drunk at a private members’ club and groping young men.
This followed scandals related to the costly redecoration of Johnson’s official residence and fines for breaking his own lockdown rules. Coupled with the erosion of much of his support among ordinary party members as a result of him pursuing high-immigration, high-tax, green agenda policies instead of governing as a conservative, this state of affairs emboldened Tory MPs — some spooked by the media narrative against Johnson, some Remainers who only ever accepted Johnson as leader begrudgingly, to force the Prime Minister to stand down.
An aggressive stance on Russia, ironically, is one of the only areas where there seems to be an internal consensus that he was doing a good job, and his equally bellicose defence secretary, Ben Wallace, is currently the favourite to replace him.
“The clown is going,” added Vyacheslav Volodin, the Speaker of the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, of Johnson’s departure.
“He is one of the main ideologues of the war against Russia… European leaders should think about where such a policy leads,” he suggested, like Zakharova appearing to imply some link between Johnson’s ouster and his stance on Russia.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was candid on the Russian government’s attitude towards Johnson more broadly, stating simply: “He doesn’t like us, we don’t like him either.”
There is some regret over his going in Kyiv (Kiev), however, where President Volodymyr Zelensky regarded Johnson as a key ally, expressing happiness when a previous attempt to oust Johnson last month failed.
“Not only me, but also all of Ukrainian society… sympathises with you a lot,” Zelensky is reported to have told Johnson in a phone call after he confirmed his resignation.