Two notoriously unreliable sources of accurate information have gone toe-to-toe over what really happened during a high-stakes phone call between Vladimir Putin and Boris Johnson shortly before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine last February. Johnson—the former British prime minister forced from power last year—claims in a forthcoming BBC documentary that Putin “threatened” him at one point in the call, alleging that the Russian president said: “‘Boris, I don’t want to hurt you but, with a missile, it would only take a minute’ or something like that.” But on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov clapped back, telling reporters: “What Mr. Johnson said is not true, more precisely, it is a lie.” “I know what was discussed during this conversation, and once again I officially repeat: This is a lie,” Peskov continued. “There were no threats of missile strikes. Speaking about the challenges for Russia’s security, President Putin noted that if Ukraine joins NATO, the potential deployment or American missiles at our borders will mean that any missile will reach Moscow in a matter of minutes.” Who to trust…
