Russian leader Vladimir Putin will try to forge a strong bond with Boris Johnson once the latter becomes Prime Minister, according to a leading historian. Pulitzer-award winning expert Anne Applebaum revealed that leader of the Kremlin will make “an offer” to the future British Prime Minister. She claimed that the two countries could form an anti-EU alliance after Britain quits the EU.
Mr Putin gave a rare interview to the Financial Times yesterday, his first with Western media in ten years.
During the conversation, the Russian President said there were signs of a thaw in the Anglo-Russian relations ahead of his meeting with Theresa May at the G20 summit.
He said: “I think Russia and UK are both interested in fully restoring our relations, at least I hope a few preliminary steps will be made.”
Relations between London and Moscow broke down after the attempted assassination of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.
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Applebaum told BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme that the big move in the diplomatic relations will happen once the new Tory leader is selected.
She said: “In this interview, there was a clear outreach to the UK at this point when Britain seems to be on its way out of Europe.
“We have two potential leaders of Britain – Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn – who Putin could well see as allies against Europe, in a new geopolitical alignment.
“He will be making that offer. He is focusing his next big state project on the UK.
Mrs May has called for the suspects in the Salisbury Novichok attack to be “brought to justice”.
The UK believes Russia’s military intelligence service were behind the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March 2018.
Scotland Yard and the CPS say there is sufficient evidence to charge two Russians – Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov – for attempted murder.
The Russian President had earlier downplayed the tensions, claiming that the Skripal affair was “a fuss about spies and counterspies”.