Judging by the fact that Boris Johnson has not been Prime Minister since September, he seems amazingly ubiquitous.

At home in London, he is still a favorite topic of the opposition, who want to hold him accountable not only for "Partygate", but also for his Corona policy, an appeals affair with the smell of favoritism and state-funded legal advice that Johnson was awarded in his final weeks in office became.

Jochen Buchsteiner

Political correspondent in London.

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Above all, however, he is present in the international press, which picks up on his chatter about Western Ukraine politics at regular intervals.

At least the HarperCollins publishers, who dug deep into their pockets for Johnson's memoirs, are happy about it.

"Prime Minister memoirs that have never existed before" are to be expected, a publisher's spokeswoman recently rejoiced.

Most of the interventions come from America, where Johnson (born in New York) can be booked as a dinner speaker for more than 100,000 euros, but also often appears in strategy institutions and on television.

There was quite a stir in Berlin when he said late last year that Olaf Scholz's government had favored a quick end to the war (in Moscow's favour) before the Russian attack on Ukraine.

"The German view at one point was: if it happens, it will be a disaster and it would be better for the whole thing to pass quickly, for Ukraine to give up," Johnson told CNN.

Scholz had this denied in two languages ​​as "complete nonsense" and "utter nonsense".

Johnson as Stoltenberg successor?

Johnson received the next high-ranking denial from Vladimir Putin in January.

In a BBC documentary, Johnson recounted a phone conversation in which the Russian President blatantly threatened him with an attack: "At one point he kind of threatened me and said, 'Boris, I don't want to hurt you, but a missile would only do it Take a minute' or something like that.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded by saying: “What Mr Johnson said is not true.” In Moscow, assurances are given that the phrase about the rocket was never uttered, which is why it is "It was either a deliberate lie or Johnson just didn't understand what Putin was talking to him about."

Although Johnson's recent statement on the Ukraine conflict was not denied, if only because no third party was involved, it was received with some grumbling in London.

Shortly after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak upheld the current NATO line and dismissed Ukraine's request for fighter jets as "not currently practicable," Johnson spoke to a Washington think tank for the immediate delivery of such planes.

Experience shows that initial hesitation in the alliance always ends with the delivery of the next branch of arms, he said on Wednesday.

Therefore one should "better do it now and stop the delay and end this war as soon as possible".

As is so often the case with Johnson, it's hard to separate frank, truthful statements from his entertainment instincts and self-expression.

That doesn't stop supporters, however, from positioning him to succeed NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg - a post that not only NATO leaders, including Rishi Sunaks, may find inappropriate, but arguably Johnson himself as well However, it is undisputed that Johnson played a leading role in international Ukraine diplomacy during his tenure and has maintained close personal ties with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to this day.

Just in January, the ordinary MP Johnson, holder of the highest Ukrainian honorary badge,

The proximity to Zelenskyy also favors the theory put forward by NATO critics that Johnson played a central role in the failure of a peace agreement last April.

In fact, in the context of the negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow, Johnson was the first head of government of the G7 to make a “surprise visit” to Ukraine.

There he found harsh words about Putin.

According to many experts, however, the fact that he sabotaged a serious negotiation breakthrough in Istanbul on behalf of the NATO hawks is primarily a story told by the Russian regime.

Unless he's mistaken, Johnson won't wait until the publication of his memoir to add his truth to this controversy as well.