EU boss Jean-Claude Juncker congratulates Vladimir Putin on election win and fails to mention spy attack on Britain
HAPLESS Jean-Claude Juncker has sparked international fury by telling Vladimir Putin he will “always be a partner” in a congratulatory phone call.
The EU boss was hit by a storm of condemnation for ringing the blood thirsty Russian president after his crooked election triumph on Sunday.
The 63 year-old Commission chief also made no mention of the Salisbury nerve agent outrage in his missive, in which he addressed Putin as “Excellency”.
Calling for better relations, Mr Juncker added: “I have always argued that positive relations between the EU and the Russian Federation are crucial to the security of our continent”.
He was angrily accused of undermining world efforts to confront the Kremlin boss over the sick assassination bid by fellow Brussels bosses.
Mr Juncker’s slavish letter stood in stark contrast to French president Emmanuel Macron, who confronted Putin in his phone to Moscow yesterday to insist he must produce answers over the Novichok use.
Furious Russian dissident and chess legend Garry Kasparov branded it “another love letter from the free world to a brutal dictator in his 19th year”.
Mr Kasparov added: “If you want to know why dictatorships bother with fake elections, this is why”.
Senior MEP and former Belgian PM Guy Verhofstadt insisted now “is no time for congratulations”, adding in a tweet: “Closer ties must be conditional on respect for the rules based international order & fundamental values”.
While many EU countries have pledged their full backing to Britain in the stand-off, it emerged yesterday that Greece is stopping EU leaders from taking a hard line against Russia at a summit tomorrow.
The bankrupt Mediterranean state is blocking a tough joint statement of condemnation from the 28 national bosses when they meet in Brussels.
Amid claims it fears for investment from Moscow being withdrawn, Athens emerged as the biggest opponent to the EU publicly holding Putin
responsible for the nerve agent outrage – a day after Germany’s wobbles also emerged.
The PM will hold back from proposing new EU-wide sanctions until the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons endorses UK scientists’ findings that Russia’s military grade nerve agent was the poison used on ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.
Mrs May also won the support of Japan after speaking to Premier Shinzō Abe yesterday.
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Mr Abe said Russia must respond to Britain’s demands to come clean on its secret nerve agent programme to the Conservative MEPs’ leader Ashley Fox added: “To congratulate Vladimir Putin on his election victory without referring to the clear ballot rigging that took place is bad enough.
“But his failure to mention Russian’s responsibility for a military nerve agent attack on innocent people in my constituency is nauseating.”
Mr Fox added: “The European Commission President is appeasing a man who poses a clear threat to western security”.