Kremlin: Johnson lied that Putin threatened him
Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov denied on Monday former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened him by striking him with a missile.
"This is either a conscious lie, then, probably, the question is, for what purpose he chose to present this version; or was it unconscious, and that in fact, he did not understand what President Putin was talking to him about," Peskov told reporters at a press conference. He insisted that on the occasion Johnson was talking about, the two leaders discussed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) expansion to the east.
The Kremlin's reaction came after Johnson stated for BBC Two that he had a conversation just before Russia's troops entered Ukraine during which, while they were talking about that country's potential accession to NATO, Putin told him that "'Boris, I don't want to hurt you, but with a missile, it would only take a minute', or something like that."