“Knowing how he spends them, it’s not funny to me”

The High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union (EU), Joseph Borrelllamented this Sunday in Nairobi (Kenya) that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has disqualified him “directly and personally”. Indeed, last Wednesday Putin linked Borrell “with the coup plotters of the 1930s” in Spain.

“If (Borrell) lived in the 1930s in Spain and heard in the weather forecast the well-known sacramental phrase ‘in all of Spain the sky is clear’, which was a signal for the start of the coup by General Franco, he would take up arms , but on which side would he fight?” Putin said at the 7th Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.

[200 días de guerra en Ucrania: la toma de Izium y Kupiansk pone en evidencia al ejército ruso]

“In my opinion,” Putin continued, “he would be on the side of the coup plotters, because today he supports the same coup plotters on the territory of Ukraine.” The president of Russia reacted like this after the head of European diplomacy was attributed these words 48 hours earlier: “At the moment, we do not have a concrete plan to defeat fascist Russia and its fascist regime.”

But Borrell claims to be the victim of manipulation, assuring that “it is a montage that the Russians have made” and that he did not say that. “That was said by a deputy. I answered a question from the deputy”, he defended on his trip to Kenya, where he met with the country’s elected president, William Ruth.

threatened

The spokesman for Foreign Affairs of the European Commission, Peter Stanoalready asked the official Russian TASS agency on Monday to verify Borrell’s words: “He has not said the words that are heard in the translation, (…) he only mentioned the statement of one of the members of the Parliament (European ) who used this expression”.

[La clave del éxito de Ucrania en el frente sur: el uso de la desinformación para vencer a Rusia]

“Knowing how Putin spends them, I don’t like him pointing it out directly to me,” Borrell acknowledged. Asked if he feels threatened, he replied: “No, well… Nobody likes Putin messing with him, but no, I’m calm. (…) I don’t have personal fear, but I do because of the blurring that blaming represents. to a person of what, after all, is a policy assumed by the 27 States”.

Russia has demanded from Borrell’s office the exact transcript of his words.