The West must stop opposing Vladimir Putin’s incursion into Ukraine and join forces with the Russian leader in the fight against Islamic extremists, Nigel Farage has said,
The Ukip leader said that Western countries must stop "playing war games in Ukraine and poking the “Russian bear with a stick” because Mr Putin is “on our side” in the war against Islamic extremism.
Mr Farage courted controversy earlier this year when he said that Mr Putin, the former KGB officer, is the statesman he most admires.
In a debate this morning at the European Parliament Mr Farage a sympathetic interpretation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he said European states had “directly encouraged” the uprising that “led in turn to Vladimir Putin reacting”.
Mr Putin has been blamed by the West for prolonging the bloodshed in Syria and propping up the regime by supplying arms including helicopter gunships to President Assad, and repeatedly blocking moves to censure or sanction him at the United Nations.
However Mr Farage suggested that these differences should be put aside with Russia and European nations “preparing a plan” to defeat to deal with “the real threat that faces us”.
He said: “Perhaps we better recognise that the West faces the biggest threat and crisis to our way of life we have seen for over 70 years. The recent beheadings of the British and American hostages graphically illustrates the problem and of course we have our own citizens from our won countries engaged in that struggle too.
“In the war against Islamic extremism, whatever we may think of him as a human being, he is actually on our side.
“I suggest we grow up, I suggest we recognise the real threat facing all of our countries, communities and societies, we stop playing war games in the Ukraine and we start to prepare a plan like Syria, like Iraq, like Kenya like Nigeria or Syria and help the deal with the real threat that faces us. Let’s not go on provoking Putin whether we like him or not.”
He added: "Amongst the long list of foreign policy failures and contradictions in the last few year, amongst them the bombing of Libya, the desire to arm the rebels in Syria, has been the unnecessary provocation of Vladimir Putin.
“This EU Empire, ever seeking to expand, stated its territorial claim on the Ukraine some years ago, just to make that worse of course some Nato members said they too would like the Ukraine to join Nato
“We directly encouraged the uprising in Ukraine that led to the toppling of the president Yanukovych and that led in turn of course to Vladimir Putin reacting. And the moral of the story is if you poke the Russian bear with stick...”
