The Foreign Secretary is under pressure over his alleged links to Kremlin go betweens Reuters

Boris Johnson is facing fresh scrutiny after a picture emerged of him at a dinner with the "London professor" linked with the US President Donald Trump-Russia probe. 

Joseph Mifsud was named in the statement of charges made by US Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller against George Papadopoulos – a former Trump campaign staffer who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about statements relating to “dirt” on Hillary Clinton he was offered during the election campaign.  

The Maltese-born professor reportedly told a colleague he was meeting the Foreign Secretary to “discuss Brexit” in October but Mr Johnson denied having ever met him.

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The news brings up concerns about the influence of the Kremlin on UK politics and the EU referendum in particular.

Mr Johnson, who was a prominent member of Vote Leave, is allegedly a member of an intricate web of relationships between a known Russian spy deported from the UK in 2015 and the chief executive of the official Brexit campaign, Matthew Elliott, the Observer reported.

The other man in the photo, businessman Prasenjit Kumar Singh, said he and Mr Mifsud met Mr Johnson at a Brexit event at the London School of Diplomacy and had chatted “about normal things”.

Asked if Mr Mifsud had introduced himself to the politician, Mr Singh said he did not know but it his first time meeting him.

 

Read more:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-boris-johnson-russi...

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson arrived in Moscow on a much-anticipated, potentially groundbreaking visit, marking the first visit to Russia in over five years by the head of the UK’s diplomatic service. Sputnik has summarized the key points of a joint press conference held by Johnson and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.

The top diplomats of Russia and the UK have agreed that the level of bilateral relations is unsatisfactory and called for improving them:

"Problems have accumulated, their load is dragging us back, although both sides, in my view, want to find ways to overcome them," Sergei Lavrov said.

"It is a sad truth that our relations having gone through a good patch, in the 1990s and the early 2000s, are now going through a bad patch. There's no question of that at all. But one of the reasons for coming here is that there is no point in simply sitting on the sidelines and complaining about each other. We have to engage and we have to talk to each other," Boris Johnson observed.

He added that the sides had "every reason to build trust now".

 

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/europe/201712221060247777-lavrov-johnson-confere...

 

 

Boris Johnson and Sergey Lavrov were at their most quotable for the first trip by a UK foreign secretary to Moscow in 5 years, but passive-aggressive jabs revealed Britain’s censure and Russia’s reluctance to be cast as a villain.

 

Johnson set the mood when in his opening remarks, traditionally dedicated to reassuring formalities about strong ties and rising trade volumes, he singled out the booming export of Kettle chips and Bentleys to Russia as “sign of progress” in the bilateral relationship. He did not get a laugh from Moscow’s delegation across the gilded table.

In his mirror statement, Lavrov, himself adept at lightening the tone, sounded significantly more somber, saying relations were at a “very low point.” Johnson preferred them term “a bad patch,” as if describing a squabble between distant uncles, and not a decade-long deterioration between Moscow and London, from accusations over the death of Alexander Litvinenko, to disagreements over Syria and Ukraine, to recent allegations of meddling in the Brexit vote.

 

In fact the highlight of the visit came in the press conference, when the diplomats mildly breached protocol to engage in direct verbal sparring, as the Foreign Secretary interrupted his Russian counterpart, who had referred recently mentioned Johnson’s own remarks that there had been no evidence of Russia manipulating the EU membership referendum in 2016.

“Not successfully. Not successfully, I think is the word,” said Johnson.

“He’s afraid that if he doesn’t object, his reputation will be spoiled in the media,” retorted Lavrov.

 

“Sergey, it’s your reputation that I’m worried about. I think it’s very important that we recognise that Russian attempts to interfere in our elections, whether they may or may not have been successful... are an important consideration,” Johnson fired back.

 

 

In response to what is the first face-to-face hacking accusation against Russia delivered to a top official, Lavrov came close to accusing the UK of lying.

 

“I would still like to at least get some facts supporting our unsuccessful meddling,” said Lavrov. “Without facts, it’s very hard to have a serious discussion. I think you’ve just made all of this up. Unfortunately, you are a sort of hostage to this subject. It’s very hard to get down from the fence you’ve climbed.”

Johnson then went on to blame Moscow for trying to illegitimately influence elections in a range of Western states, in addition to his pre-trip comments that the UK would retaliate to any potential Moscow cyberattacks and propaganda operations.

 

"I want you to know, to measure my trust, that as soon as I got into this excellent foreign ministry I immediately handed my coat, my hat, my gloves and indeed everything that was in my pockets, secret or otherwise, to Sergey Lavrov in the knowledge that he would look after it and it would come to no harm," proffered Johnson in his favored tone, somewhere between sincerity, buffoonery and facetiousness.

 

“I can say that there was nothing in Boris's coat pockets," Lavrov joked back.

 

read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/414020-johnson-lavrov-visit-highlights/

 

From Andre Vltchek

 

It has been all very ugly, aggressive and often distinctly vulgar: the way the British Foreign Secretary has behaved before and during his official visit to Moscow.

Mr. Johnson described Russia as “closed, nasty, militaristic and anti-democratic” concluding that it could not be “business as usual”.

He did not define what the UK has become, and the Russian hosts were too polite to explain.

The “business as usual” it was not.

During the last few weeks, the behavior patterns of both the UK and US have began increasingly to resemble those of the badly brought up leadership of the provincial Italian mafia: “You do as we tell you, or we’ll poke out your eyes… or break your leg… or perhaps we’ll kidnap your daughter”.

It appears that there is absolutely no shame left in Washington, in London, and in several other ‘provincial capitals’ of the Empire. Insults are piling on insults and then shot to all corners of the globe. Lies are being spread barefacedly, and bizarre deceptions and fabrications have been manufactured with impressive speed.

It is clear that the Empire is now missing its composure, its nerve; that it is scared of losing its control over the world and its monopoly on deciding what should be universally accepted as the truth.

The more the world realizes that it has been controlled and brutalized by shameless neo-colonialist gangsters, the more the Empire says, indirectly but sometimes even straight into the faces of the international community: “Our interests are what really matter! You will behave and obey, or we will smash you to pieces, starve you to death, invade you and bathe your land in blood”.

It is nothing new, of course: the West has been doing all this for many decades and centuries. Hundreds of millions of Asians, Africans, South Americans, Middle Easterners and Russians lost their lives in the process. All non-white continents were occupied, plundered and enslaved; all, without a single exception. But it was always done “for the good of the victims”, or “in order to protect them” (most likely from themselves).

The Brits were at the forefront of the art of manipulating the brains of their ‘subjects’. Their propaganda used to be refined, effective, some would even say ‘brilliant’. For decades after the end of the Second World War, they used to teach its offspring in North America and Australia, how to lie elegantly and how to convince even those nations that were being barbarically raped, that they were actually being rescued, pampered and made love to, gently and respectfully.

Now the masks have fallen off, and the ugly, gangrenous face of imperialism has been clearly exposed. Britain is simply not in the mood for refinements. It is brutal. It was always brutal. Now it is also, finally, honest.

It is all absolutely frightening, but it is also good, truly significant, that the West is suddenly behaving with such clarity.

*

What is it that Mr. Johnson is accusing Russia of? Of liberating Syria from those Western, Saudi, and Qatari backed terrorist groups? What else could be expected from the Foreign Secretary of the country that had been, for long centuries, the mightiest, ruthless and the most deceptive colonialist empire in the history of the mankind? Mr. Johnson is definitely not going to thank the liberator of the oppressed people, is it?

In his open letter to Boris Johnson, the British writer and journalist Neil Clark wrote:

“In April you canceled your planned visit to Moscow and traveled to the G7 talks instead, where you urged other countries to consider fresh sanctions against Russia (and Syria), saying that Vladimir Putin was “toxifying his image” by backing Assad.

But if Russia hadn’t supported the Syrian government, ISIS/Al-Qaeda affiliates would probably have taken control of the whole country. Is that what you wanted?”

Of course it was! More chaos, the better!

The UK has been playing appalling, truly Machiavellian games all over the Middle East, and it has been doing it for centuries – in Palestine, in what is now Iraq and Kuwait, and in many other areas. To borrow from the colorful lexicon of the Prime Minister Lloyd George, it was reserving rights “to bomb those niggers”, to bomb them and to fry them alive, to rob them of everything, even of the land itself. The UK, together with their close friends and allies such as Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, managed to manufacture the most conservative branch of Islam, just in order to keep the local population in fear and submission to its commercial and colonialist interests.

The country responsible for hundreds of millions of dead, for tens of millions of human beings who have been hunted down like animals and shipped to America as slaves, has been reserving the right to judge the world, to decide what is ‘free’ and what is not, what is ‘democratic’ and what is dictatorial, what is true and what is false or even ‘fake’.

‘Fake news’ – the latest invention of the crumbling, paranoid Western regime!

Now the Empire is hunting down almost all ‘alternative media’ outlets, including the highly successful and informative RT (Russia Today) international television channel. It is important to remember and to understand: only the official Western channels and press agencies are allowed to spread indoctrination all over the world. To broadcast or to print ‘counter-propaganda’ (or call it an intellectual detox) is considered an arch crime, and punished as such. The RT is now portrayed as a hive of ‘agents’, at least in both Washington and London.

*

As the Syrian city of Aleppo was celebrating its first anniversary of liberation, grateful citizens were carrying, in reverent silence, portraits of Russian soldiers who spilled their blood for the liberation of their nation.

The Syrian people know, they clearly understand, who ignited the war, and who came to their rescue.

Boris Johnson can insult Russia as much as he desires, but one thing he cannot deny: there are no men, women and children carrying portraits of British soldiers, be it in Iraq or Afghanistan, in Syria, Libya or Yemen.

In Yemen, the UK talks peace but manufactures bombs that are enriching the already deadly Saudi arsenal of weapons, used to terrorize, and to murder thousands of defenseless Yemeni civilians.

Russian Foreign Secretary Sergei Lavrov said nothing about the crimes against humanity that are being committed by British troops in several parts of the world. I believe that he should have said something, that he should have said a lot, but Mr. Lavrov is a seasoned diplomat, and he knows perfectly well what is appropriate, what is effective and what is counter-productive.

*

Yes, the Empire is evidently in panic.

It is scared of everything: of public opinion all over the world, of the great Chinese new Silk Road initiative which is gaining great popularity all over the Asian continent, of the Sino-Russian alliance, of the silent rebellion in the ranks of its former allies, particularly in Asia, of the undeniably increasing economic might of its adversaries, of the new ‘alternative media’, and even of its own tail lost somewhere in the darkness.

For many years, one effective way for the Empire to control the world was to spread dark cynicism and nihilism, in order to ‘pacify’, to immobilize its colonies and even its own people living in Europe and North America. Now this strategy is backfiring: British and North American citizens are not only passive and unwilling to fight for the internationalist and left wing ideals, they are also unimpressed, even disgusted with their own rulers and regime. Yes, most of them are cynical about such countries like Russia, China or Venezuela, but they are also cynical about the corporatism, capitalism, as well as Western domestic and foreign policy. They are not willing to commit to anything. They trust nothing. They believe in very few things.

For the Empire, people like Boris Johnson are extremely useful buffoons: they offer cheap entertainment to the masses, and they deliver it with impeccable upper-class English accents (the BBC-style). They play it dirty, trying to smear, to humiliate their opponents. They try to bring back pride to their imperialist and white supremacist regime, by humiliating the victims, who are now finally standing on their feet and ready to fight for the right to be different.

People like Mr. Johnson turn reality upside down, and it is all done ‘spontaneously’, with a boyish, almost innocent grin. Except that there is actually absolutely nothing innocent in this entire charade. It is all perfectly choreographed, all extremely professional.

*

The Empire is rotting and it is in agony. It panics. It fights for its life.

Peace is dangerous. If the world is at peace, it is indisputable that the Western Empire would lose, in no time. It would be defeated on social, moral, creative and even economic fronts.

That is why the Empire is spreading chaos, fear, war, perpetual conflicts and antagonism everywhere, all over the world: in Syria and Afghanistan, Libya, in all corners of Africa and parts of Southeast Asia, in Iran, Central and South America, even in the tiniest countries of Oceania.

It is challenging, provoking North Korea, it is insulting countries that have already suffered more than enough from Western terror and barbarism; countries like Russia, China and Iran.

It threatens those nations (and even some international organizations like UNESCO) that are supporting Palestine.

It essentially bullies all those who want to live their own lives, their own cultures, and their own economic and social systems. It punishes those countries that are refusing to plunder their own people and resources in order to support the high-life of the Western nations. It overthrows governments, and murders individuals.

*

In Moscow, the British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson made a fool of himself. He did! With his unmistakable spineless jellyfish style, he tried but failed to humiliate the nation, which, for several centuries fought determinedly against Western imperialism and colonialism, and, on numerous occasions has already managed to save the world.

Mr. Johnson applied an old and rather disgusting approach: he came to Russia with spite and superiority complex, ready to preach, to insult, to scold those white-looking but essentially Asian people – to ‘show them their place’.

But this is 2017 now, not 1990. London is not the center of the universe, anymore, just the capital of a confused and rather aggressive and increasingly badly behaved nation.

The British bulldog came to Moscow. Frankly, it did not even look like a bulldog, anymore – it looked totally… weird: stoned and mentally unbalanced. It barked and barked, while the Russian bear was calm, maintaining its composure. It was clear who of the two has the upper hand, and who is provoking and who is refusing to fight. It was also obvious who of the two is really scared.

And, it was so apparent to whom belongs the past and to whom belongs the future!

Originally published by NEO (New Eastern Outlook)

read more:

https://off-guardian.org/2017/12/28/panic-of-boris-johnson-in-moscow-ago...

 

 

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Russia's FM has lightheartedly shared Moscow's 'international achievements' with the host of a Russian satirical show. With many elections to interfere in, only the Japanese emperor managed to buy more time in power, Lavrov said.

Recalling the elections in France, the Catalonia independence referendum and the Brexit vote, the seasoned diplomat, known for his sense of humor, was asked to share Moscow's foreign policy plans for next year.

"You haven't mentioned all we've done. What about Sweden, Denmark, Montenegro, Macedonia and Austria? We've worked hard, [meddling] isn't that easy," Lavrov joked on NTV channel's 'Mezhdunarodnaya Pilorama' ('International Sawmill') show.

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/414588-lavrov-meddling-jokes-japan/

The revelations of top British military scientists have thrown the social media into an uproar as it became apparent that new statements cast doubt on earlier claims made by Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson regarding the alleged nerve gas attack in Salisbury.

Gary Aitkenhead, chief executive of the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down in England, told Sky News that while the scientists managed to identify the chemical used in the Skripal poisoning case as a "military-grade nerve agent," they were unable to determine its "precise source."

About two weeks earlier, however, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson insisted during an interview with Deutsche Welle that Porton Down scientists were "absolutely categorical: when they allegedly assured him that "there’s no doubt" that the chemical came from Russia.

READ MORE: 'Embarrassing': Social Media Abuzz Over Russia Not Identified as Novichok Source

Many social media users were nonplussed by this development, voicing their concerns via Twitter and calling on Johnson to be held accountable.

 

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/europe/201804041063194798-johnson-novichok-claim...

 

Boris Johnson is not a disaster waiting to happen. He is a disaster that has been repeatedly happening for years now, and the only change is that the disasters have got progressively bigger. He should have been sacked as foreign secretary months ago, when his blundering intervention in the case of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe – the charity worker jailed in Iran on spying charges, after what her family has always insisted was a simple visit home to see relatives – gave a hostile regime an excuse to prolong her ordeal.

Having survived that gaffe only because Theresa May was too weak to move him, Johnson should at least have had the grace to learn from it; to grasp that the Foreign Office is not the place for winging it or exaggerating to make a point; that even tiny deviations from the script carry grave consequences when dealing with intelligence-related matters or regimes such as Iran.

But he wasn’t sacked and he didn’t learn, so here we are again. A slapdash interview the foreign secretary gave in Germany, in which he appeared to claim he’d been personally and categorically assured by “the guy” at Porton Down that Russia was behind the Salisbury poisoning, backfired on him this week when Porton Down’s chief executive, Gary Aitkenhead, explained that scientists could certainly identify the nerve agent involved, but that naming the culprit was above their pay grade. So much for the lessons supposedly learned from the run-up to war on Iraq about the incredibly difficult art of explaining intelligence-driven decisions to the public without compromising either the identity of sources or the accuracy of the material.

Anyone claiming that all this blows a hole in the idea of Russian guilt needs to cool their heels. It doesn’t change a government case that always relied on science to narrow the range of suspects, by identifying the means of poisoning, but on the intelligence services to complete the jigsaw. It was for them to advise on who might have not just the significant technical capacity required to deploy a Russian-manufactured toxin, but also the desire to kill enemies of the Russian state; the audacity to do it in a way bound to cause a crisis in Anglo-Russian relations, given its uncanny similarity to previous Russian operations; and the opportunities to get it in and out of the country. The case for this mysterious culprit being Russia was never definitive, but unless anyone produces strong evidence to the contrary, that’s by far the most likely explanation. That much hasn’t changed.

What has changed is the credibility of the government in saying so, because the foreign secretary’s over-egging of the pudding – whether by carelessness or design, and in the circumstances both are inexcusable – gives Vladimir Putin a perfect excuse to cast doubt over anything and everything the British government says. Frankly, Johnson has a nerve accusing Jeremy Corbyn of undermining national security when he himself has handed Moscow a propaganda victory on a plate, dragged politically neutral Porton Down staff into an uncomfortably partisan political row, and needlessly undermined the work of the wider intelligence community.

 

Read more:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/05/boris-johnson-inte...

 

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simon says... fugu fish and some guinea pigs... 

 

Hunt and blather

Jeremy Hunt got off to a flying start on his first trip to China as the new British foreign secretary. He told his hosts that his Chinese wife, Lucia Guo, was Japanese.

Hunt was supposed to be fostering deeper, closer, more meaningful Sino–British relations but anxious officials from the foreign office didn’t think his blunder was all that helpful, what with the Chinese having long-held animosities towards the Japanese.

By contrast to his predecessor, though, it’s a relatively good start for Jeremy, who still has a fair way to go to reach the buffoonish-heights conquered by Boris Johnson.

Among Boris’s triumphs were his observations on Hillary Clinton (“like a sadistic nurse in a mental hospital”); Barack Obama (“part-Kenyan”); ping-pong (he told the Chinese the game was “invented on the dining tables of England in the 19th century and called wiff-waff”); the Commonwealth (“supplies [the Queen] with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies” ); the European Union (“Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried to unify Europe, and it ends tragically”); the president of Turkey (in a limerick: “There was a young fellow from Ankara/ Who was a terrific wankerer/ Till he sowed his wild oats/ With the help of a goat/ But he didn’t even stop to thankera”) et cetera, et cetera.

 

Read more:

https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/2018/08/04/gadfly-homilies-scale/153...

 

Ah Boris... we miss you already... Read from top. See also:

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/31759