Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday denounced British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's statement that he would not have invaded Ukraine if he were a woman, and the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the UK ambassador to Moscow, Deborah Brunert, to protest.
Speaking at a press conference Thursday morning during a visit to Turkmenistan, Putin cited former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's decision to send troops to Argentina to seize the Falkland Islands to refute Johnson's theory, adding, "Here, a woman made the decision to launch military action."
The Russian president criticized Britain's move 40 years ago to respond to Argentina's attempt to impose its control over the islands in the South Atlantic.
"Where are the Falkland Islands and where is Britain?!... Thatcher's actions were motivated solely by imperialist ambitions and (the desire to) assert their imperial status," Putin asked.
Johnson considered Putin's war on Ukraine stems from "toxic masculinity" (Reuters)
call the ambassador
In this context, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Moscow had informed the British ambassador of its "strong" protest against "the inappropriate statements of the British authorities towards Russia, its president and officials, as well as towards the Russian people."
"In a polite society, customs presuppose an apology for similar statements," she added, denouncing what she considered offensive and unacceptable speech.
The Russian Foreign Ministry, when summoning the British ambassador, also stressed that "deliberately spreading misleading information about supposed threats from the Russian side to resort to nuclear weapons" is "unacceptable".
This position came in response to the accusation of British Defense Minister Ben Wallace on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, of "threatening everyone with nuclear weapons" every week.
"If Putin were a woman, which he obviously isn't, I don't think he would have launched this crazy male war," Johnson told German television network ZDF on Tuesday evening, calling it a "violent war designed to overrun" Ukraine. .
Johnson considered that the launching of this war by Russia was an "excellent example of toxic masculinity".