Fears over safety of England fans as Russia expels liaison envoy and shuts British consulate
Boris Johnson has predicted Vladimir Putin will revel in the World Cup in Russia this summer in the same way that Adolf Hitler did in the Olympic Game in Berlin in 1936, and indicated the UK may advise English football fans to avoid travelling to the tournament for their own safety.
The foreign secretary said about a quarter of the number of fans who travelled to watch England in Brazil in 2014 were currently expected to go to Russia. He said 24,000 people had bought tickets, as opposed to 94,000 at the same point in the run-up to the tournament in Brazil.
Johnson revealed that the British diplomat responsible for liaising with UK fans had been hurled out as part of the diplomatic expulsions in the wake of the poisoning of a Russian former snoop, Sergei Skripal.
Russia has also said it is closing the British consulate in Saint petersburg, restricting the ability of the UK embassy to help guests in the event of violence.
Johnson said he would be seeking urgent assurances from Russia that it would fulfil its obligations under the World Cup contract to ensure the safety of fans.” I think it is up to the Russians to devote us an endeavour that they will be safe ,” he said.
Both Russia and England have a history of violent football fans, and the risk of fierce fighting between the two sets of fans appears to be higher given the political tensions.
The Russian foreign ministry responded to Johnson's statements by saying he was ” poisoned with venom of abhor, unprofessionalism and boorishness “. It said:” It's scary to remember that this person represents the political leadership of a nuclear power .”
Johnson was speaking to the all-party foreign affairs select committee and responding to remarks from the Labour MP Ian Austin, who called for England to pull out of the World Cup altogether.” Putin is going to use it in the way Hitler employed the 1936 Olympics ,” Austin said.
Johnson responded:” I think that your characterisation of what is going to happen in Moscow, the World Cup, in all the venues- yes, I think the comparison with 1936 is surely right. It is an emetic prospect of Putin glorying in this sporting event “.
However, he said he did not think it would be fair to ban the England team from competing.
Austin described Putin as a KGB ” thug” who had enriched himself. Johnson said he did not believe Putin had been re-elected in a free and fair election, saying there had been no true competitive choice.
Johnson again repudiated Moscow's assertion that it had nothing to do with the attack on Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, on 4 March. He said:” No matter how exactly it came to be done, the pathway, the chain of responsibility seems to me to go back to the Russian nation and those at the top .”
A Russian official said on Wednesday that Moscow would not accept the results of an inquiry into the source of the poison being undertaken by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
At a televised briefing to Moscow-based diplomats, Vladimir Yermakov, a deputy head of the foreign affairs ministry's department for non-proliferation, said:” It is not possible to evaluate what happened in Salisbury within the framework of the[ chemical weapons] convention and within the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Deeper expert evaluations will be needed, and in any case we need to conduct our own investigations for Russia to be able to draw any conclusions .”
He indicated the UK was ” conceal facts” about the example that may afterward “disappear”.
A sometimes flustered Yermakov was tackled at the briefing by envoys from the UK, France, the US, Slovakia and Sweden all separately challenging the Russian handling of the case. The British diplomat, Emma Nottingham, accused the Russians of having” a record of state-sponsored assassinations “.
Yermakov responded:” Aren't you ashamed of yourself? Pull yourselves away a little bit from your Russophobia and your island mentality .”
EU heads of state will gratify on Thursday and express solidarity with the UK over the Skripal attack but will not immediately ascribe responsibility to Russia. The EU council president, Donald Tusk, said the EU would agree” to increase our resilience to hybrid menaces such as undermining trust in our democracies through fake news or election meddling “.
He said he was in” no mood to celebrate Putin's election”- statements designed to contrast strongly with a gushing letter of praise to the Russian leader from the EU commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker. Differences in the different regions of the EU mean no new Russian sanctions will be proposed at least until clearer liability emerges from either the British police or OPCW investigations.
Johnson said he had been struck by” the mountain of disgust globally” directed at Russia and claimed the UK had been picked on for standing up to Russia on human rights, Syria and Ukraine.
Russia for its part suffered” a revanchiste bitternes feeling about the style the cold war ended”, leading Putin” to want to cause trouble wherever he can”, he said.
He said the UK would crack down on Russian oligarchs living in” big schlosses in fashionable districts of London”, so long as there was evidence that their funds had been gained illicitly or corruptly.
Johnson said he was prepared to investigate whether wealthy Russians were sending money back to Moscow through Russian indebtednes bond auctions. Russia raised$ 2bn in a debt auction in London last week.
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