Kremlin labels Boris Johnson's claim about receiving missile threat from Putin 'a lie'

The Kremlin dispelled former United Kingdom Boris Johnson’s wild claim in a BBC documentary that Russian President Vladimir Putin had “sort of” threatened him with a missile attack, by stating on Monday that the two leaders never engaged in a conversation like that when they held talks in February 2022. 

According to The Independent, Johnson had said in the three-part series titled 'Putin vs the West'' that he spoke with Putin via phone while Russia and Ukraine were on the brink of war. “He sort of threatened me at one point and said: ‘Boris, I don’t want to hurt you, but with a missile, it would only take a minute’, or something like that,” the former Conservative Party leader claimed. 

On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov addressed Johson’s remarks and labeled them as untrue “or, more precisely, it was a lie.” “There were no threats with missiles,” Peskov told reporters, clarifying that Johnson might be lying or was unable to decipher what Putin had told him.

Putin was 'very relaxed' during conversation: Johnson 

“While talking about security challenges to Russia, President Putin said that if Ukraine joins NATO, the potential deployment of US or other NATO missiles near our borders would mean that any such missile could reach Moscow in minutes,” he added. Johnson claimed that the missile threat arose during an “extraordinary” conversation that occurred last February after his visit to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv to reiterate the West’s support for Ukraine amid fears of a Russian attack.

Johnson described Putin’s tone during the conversation as “very relaxed” with an “air of detachment.” "But I think from the very relaxed tone that he was taking, the sort of air of detachment that he seemed to have, he was just playing along with my attempts to get him to negotiate," the ex-PM said.