The Kremlin moved to belittle Boris Johnson on Wednesday, describing him as “utterly confused” and calling British diplomacy a waste of time.
The concerted effort to ridicule Britain’s efforts to put itself at the helm of the fight to protect Ukraine came the day after the UK prime minister flew to Kyiv to warn that a Russian invasion would be a humanitarian, political and military disaster for Moscow.
British efforts to arrange a phone call between Johnson and Vladimir Putin were put in flux after a previously scheduled call on Monday had to be cancelled by the British because Johnson had to answer questions from MPs about alleged Covid rule-breaking parties in Downing Street.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday it would provide details if and when Putin spoke to Johnson by phone, and Putin was ready to talk to anyone, including the “utterly confused”. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov later added that the pair would speak on Wednesday evening.
Russia has said it has no plans to stage a new invasion of Ukraine, and has ridiculed Johnson’s claims that an invasion is imminent.
The Russian deputy ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyanskiy, told Sky News: “There is always room for diplomacy, but franklywe don’t trust British diplomacy. I think in recent years British diplomacy has shown that it is absolutely worthless in such issues, I am sorry to say.
“I really don’t want to offend anybody, especially my good friends, British diplomats, but really, the results are nothing to boast about.”
He added: “The hysteria just does not stop. What was happening is only in the heads of western politicians and not on the ground.”
The UK has just taken over the chair of the UN security council, and Britain has had a number of run-ins with Polyanskiy, one of the more quotable Russian diplomats in recent years, on matters ranging from Syria, Libya, Ukraine and chemical weapons.
Russian media is full of British media reports that Johnson attended prosecco-fuelled parties.
Regarding the phone call, the Russian ambassador to London, Andrei Kelin, said in an interview with the Solovyov Live YouTube channel on Tuesday: “There is principled understanding that the conversation will take place. I hope it will be held because we really need to speak … but what about? Indeed, it should be understood that if Great Britain speaks from the positions it is looking at now – solidarity, intimidation, speculations about consequences – such a conversation will be not be long, I should say.”
Johnson’s difficulties in securing a call with Putin contrasts with the two recent calls between the Russian president and France’s Emmanuel Macron, as well as a call between Putin and the Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi.
The Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, supposedly a close ally of Johnson, was afforded a rare five-hour face-to-face discussion with Putin in what looked like an attempt to help Orbán secure his re-election in April.
Johnson, given Britain’s forward stance on Ukraine, was never going to receive the red carpet treatment. The UK defence secretary, Ben Wallace, is still due to travel to Moscow for talks this week with his opposite number.
The friction in the British-Russian relations came as papers were leaked detailing the offer Nato had put to Russia on possible detailed future disarmament talks. Putin has not yet formally replied to the proposals but said they did not meet his central call for a reversal of Nato expansion and the removal of offensive weapons close to Russia’s border.
The papers show Nato demanding de-escalation by Russia around Ukraine but also displaying a willingness to hold discussions within the Nato-Russia council on arms controls, including intermediate missiles, greater transparency and discussions about the concept of the indivisibility of security, a potential way in which Russia could open up a dialogue on Nato troop deployments that leave Russia threatened.
Russia has yet to decide if the Nato offer presents a lever into wider talks.
Russia will be disappointed by Ukraine’s refusal to open talks on a special status for the Donbas, the Russian-supporting eastern part of Ukraine. The Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmitro Kuleba, said: “No Ukrainian region will have a right power for national state decisions. This is set in stone. There will be no special status, as Russia imagines it, no voting power.
“We are carrying out a very deep decentralisation reform, and we are ready to work on the implementation of the Minsk agreements. But the Minsk agreements begin with security issues. The political part is in second place. So everyone must first focus on security.”
The Minsk agreements negotiated in 2015 set out a roadmap for greater autonomy for the region, but there is a dispute over sequencing.
