“Don’t annoy the Russian bear”: Nigel Farage’s outing shakes up the British legislative campaign
“I will not apologize for telling the truth.” In a stand published by The Daily Telegraph, Nigel Farage persists and signs. The day before, Friday June 21, the leader of Reform UK provoked an almost general outcry. Questioned by Nick Robinson on the BBC, the populist right candidate for the July 4 legislative elections estimated that the West had “provoked” Russia. The parallel expansions of NATO and the EU would thus have “given a reason” for Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine, he maintains. And to continue the next day in the columns of the conservative daily:
“If we do not reflect on our missteps, we will not be able to build peace. This war is immoral, shameful and indefensible. (…) As a defender of the notion of national sovereignty, I think that Vladimir Putin was wrong. But that doesn’t change the fact that I saw it all coming ten years ago. As I have said many times before: don’t bother the Russian bear, he tends to react.”
A false argument
The vast majority of British newspapers were quick to accuse Nigel Farage of rewriting history. “The countries that joined NATO did not do so to alienate Russia, but precisely because
