UK Deputy Prime Minister, Dominic Raab on Tuesday, tried to downplay the earlier cancellation of a phone call between Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Russian President, Vladimir Putin.
“Any prime minister, any president, it happens all the time their diaries and their call sheets dart around the place because they’re balancing things,’’ Raab told Sky News broadcaster.
Former Labour Foreign Minister, Jack Straw, disagreed with Raab, arguing that calls between UK prime ministers and other world leaders “are not moved all the time like this.’’
“This was a big deal. It was a particularly big deal for Boris Johnson to have his press people announce that he, Johnson, was not just talking to ahead of government but a head of state in Vladimir Putin,’’ Straw told Sky News.
According to the former politician who served in the British Cabinet from 1997 to 2010 under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, the cancellation of the call showed “further evidence of congenital systemic chaos in Downing Street.’’
On Monday, Johnson told lawmakers that he would speak to Putin as soon as he could amid reports that the phone conversation had been cancelled.
He was making a statement in parliament after an internal inquiry into the parties held at his official residence in Downing Street, at the COVID-19 lockdown found serious “failures of leadership and judgment .’’
The Kremlin said earlier on Tuesday that no conversation between Putin and Johnson was on schedule for the day.
The UK prime minister was expected to travel to Ukraine on Tuesday as NATO member states ramped up support for Kiev in anticipation of an alleged attack by Russia.
Moscow had referred to the allegations of potential aggression on its part as a pretext for a provocation.
Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia said Monday that there might be a provocation by Kiev.
He cited information from two breakaway republics in eastern Ukraine. (Sputnik/NAN)
