British PM Boris Johnson has said that opposition to Moscow’s actions in Ukraine should not be allowed to turn into discrimination against the Russian people, after the UK government announced new sanctions against associates of President Vladimir Putin.
Speaking to lawmakers on Tuesday, Johnson urged them not to slide into “casual Russophobia” as Western nations look to punish the Kremlin for its decision to recognize the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), breakaway states that most countries consider to be part of Ukraine.
In 2016, when Johnson was foreign minister, Moscow accused him of “Russophobic hysteria” after he claimed that the Kremlin had committed “war crimes” in Syria and warned that Russia could become a “pariah nation” if it continued “down its current path.”