Nigel Farage reiterated that he blames the West and NATO for the Russian invasion of Ukraine – confirming that he previously said he “admired” Vladimir Putin as a statesman.
Speaking to the BBC, the UK’s reformist leader was asked about his previous comments about Russia and Ukraine.
Asked about the invasion of Russia in 2022, Mr Farage told Nick Robinson that he had been saying since the fall of the Berlin Wall that there would be a war in Ukraine due to “the ever-increasing eastward expansion of NATO and the European Union”.
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He said this would give Putin a reason to tell the Russian people that “they are coming for us again” and go to war.
O Remodeling The leader confirmed his belief that the West “provoked” the conflict – but said it was “of course” the Russian president’s “fault”.
Previous comments made by Farage about Putin were also made to him.
He was questioned about comments he made in 2014 stating that Putin was the statesman he most admired.
Farage said he didn’t like the Russian leader – but “I admired him as a political operator because he was able to take control” of the country’s administration.
“That’s nonsense, you know, you can pick any figure, current or historical, and say, you know, they had good aspects?” he added.
“And if you said, ‘Well, they were really talented in one area,’ suddenly you’d become their biggest supporter.”
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Farage was also asked about Brexit and how it has impacted the United Kingdom.
He was asked about previous comments he made when said Brexit “failed”.
The former UKIP leader said that was what “the Conservatives have done with this”.
“If you put me in charge, it would be very, very different,” he said, “but of course they didn’t do that, did they?”
On his party’s climate policies, Farage said he wants to “go nuclear” and abandon the existing net-zero emissions program.
He dismissed that he was “discussing the science” about climate change, but that “we spend too much time hyperventilating about the problem rather than thinking practically and logically about what we can do.”
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Farage added that King Charles – who was then a prince – made a “very stupid comment” when he said carbon dioxide was a pollutant.
The Reform leader then said that with deindustrialization, CO2 production was sent offshore to places like India and “all we did was export the emissions.”
This story originally appeared on News.sky.com read the full story
