Does Nigel Farage blame or support Putin?
It is a question that has been bubbling under for a while.
So when Richard Tice appeared on Sky News, he was asked by Trevor Phillips: “Does Nigel Farage still think that the west provoked the Russian invasion of Ukraine & does he still admire Putin?”
Tice responded with: “No, of course he doesn’t… Farage is crystal clear that Putin is the aggressor.”
Well, rewind to 2024 and Nigel Farage, on BBC’s Newsnight, was asked about who provoked the war in The Ukraine and he said it was the West.
He was then pressed over a social media post in February 2022, when he claimed the Russian invasion of Ukraine was “a consequence of EU and Nato expansion”.
Farage said he had been arguing since the 1990s that “the ever eastward expansion” of the Nato military alliance and the EU was giving President Putin “a reason to [give to] his Russian people to say they’re coming for us again and to go to war”.
He added: “We provoked this war. Of course, it’s [President Putin’s] fault.”
Admire
Also, in late March 2014, GQ Magazine published parts of an interview with Mr Farage, who was then the leader of Ukip.
In response to a question about the current world leader he admires the most, Mr Farage said: “As an operator, but not as a human being, I would say Putin.
“The way he played the whole Syria thing. Brilliant. Not that I approve of him politically. How many journalists in jail now?”
A few days after the comments appeared, Mr Farage said: “They’re going to have a go at me over Putin because I’ve been wildly misquoted over that.”
“I was asked a couple of months ago which world leader did I admire and I said Vladimir Putin as an operator, particularly the way he managed to stop the West getting militarily involved in Syria, but I don’t like him, I wouldn’t want to live there and I don’t like him as a human being. But I’m sure there will be a ding-dong over that.”
