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[Cyprus Times] "Terrible mistake" by the West not to punish Putin over Crimea, says Boris Johnson

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The West made a "terrible mistake" by continuing to rely on Russian oil and gas after the 2014 invasion of Crimea, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says in an article for the Daily Telegraph.
[BR]

"The Russian leader had committed a brutal attack and taken over a huge chunk of a sovereign country, and we let him get away with it," Mr Johnson writes.

Noting that President Putin is using energy supplies as a means of "blackmail", he goes on to note that the West cannot continue in this manner.

He urges a ban on imports of Russian hydrocarbons in order to hurt the Putin regime economically, as Russia "produces very little else that the rest of the world wants to buy."

While admitting that this ban will cause a "painful" period of adjustment for the West, the British Prime Minister stresses: "As long as the West is economically dependent on Putin, it will do everything it can to exploit that dependence. And that is why that dependence must now end and will end."

Johnson is expected to travel to Riyadh later this week for a meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in an attempt to persuade Gulf countries to release oil stocks to avoid further price rises.

For the same reason on Monday night Boris Johnson had a telephone conversation with the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. According to Downing Street, they agreed to work together "to improve global energy security."

Source: CNA


Contents of this article including associated images are belongs Cyprus Times
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or Cyprus Times

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