Russian dissidents living in the UK have hit back at “deeply offensive” words of admiration for Vladimir Putin by Nigel Farage and another Reform UK candidate.
It comes as a former British defence attache posted in Moscow described Mr Farage and his party, now third in the polls, as “deeply maligned actors … working against the security interest of our country”.
When asked about both accusations, a Reform UK spokesperson burst into laughter, before suggesting Julian Malins, a party candidate who last weekend bragged about meeting Putin and that he “seemed very good”, was merely a highly-intelligent “eccentric sort of character”.
Mr Malins later sought to clarify his comments, saying Putin was a “popular” president and therefore a “good Russian president”, but said he was not a good man “in the Christian sense”.
Three dissidents, as well as newly-knighted Sir Bill Browder, formerly Russia’s largest foreign investor before being exiled by Putin, told The Independent that comments from Mr Farage and Mr Malins were an affront not only to them but to the British passport holder Vladimir Kara-Murza, who is serving a 25-year prison sentence in a Siberian solitary confinement cell for speaking out against the invasion of Ukraine.
After the death of Alexei Navalny in a Russian penal colony, Mr Kara-Murza’s family now fear he will Putin’s next target.
In comments during a BBC interview last Friday, Mr Farage said he “disliked Putin as a person but admired him as a political operator,” adding: “He has managed to take control of Russia.”
Marina Litvinenko, whose husband Alexander, a former Russian spy, was killed in 2006 after he defected and moved to the UK, said she felt “very disgusted” by the comments by both Reform candidates.
“It made me feel very disgusted because we already know how many criminal cases have been opened against Putin, how many people, because of his personal order, have been killed, and how many people now have been imprisoned.
“Talking about Putin as a great leader, for me it was absolutely unbelievable.”
She added that for the party to refer to Mr Malins as merely an “eccentric” was playing down the seriousness of the situation.
“I don’t think we should say it is not serious, that it is just eccentric, because the times are very serious at the moment.”
Grigory Chkhartishvili, a Russian-Georgian author who was designated by the Kremlin as a foreign agent in January for opposing the war in Ukraine, described Mr Farage and his Reform UK party as “Putin understanders”.
“The dictator knows he can count on their support, his general message being ‘Xenophobes and morons of the world, unite!’,” he said.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was once Russia’s richest man before he was arrested on trumped up charges of fraud and tax evasion, after which he served 10 years in prison, applauded the right of Mr Farage to voice opinions he himself vehemently opposed, but urged the Reform UK leader to consider the case of Mr Kara-Murza.
Mr Kara-Murza, who spent much of his teenage years in London before returning to Russia to join the opposition against Putin, was arrested in April 2022 and jailed the following year. He is now serving the longest political sentence since the era of Joseph Stalin.
Sir Bill Browder, whose tireless efforts to free Mr Kara-Murza, among other humanitarian endeavours, earned him a knighthood in the King’s honours list earlier this month, suggested comments by Mr Farage and Mr Malins were “offensive to anyone who has been victimised by Putin”. He described their ideas about Putin as “idiocy” and “nonsense”.
After Mr Farage said he “admired” Putin last weekend, he went on to say that the West had “provoked” the Russian leader into invading Ukraine. He doubled down on those comments a day later, having been criticised by both UK prime minister Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer for “playing into Putin’s hands”, complaining that he could “not be blamed for telling the truth”.
John Foreman, a former defence attache in Moscow from 2019 to 2022, suggested those remarks were “akin to blaming a rape victim for being attacked”.
“There’s a tendency to regard Farage as naive and cartoonish,” he said. “He’s a deeply malign and misinformed actor who acts – willingly or unwillingly- against the security interests of our country.
“Farage is no democrat. To me he is a wannabe, fundamentally ignorant Mosley-like figure, a plastic patriot who wraps himself in the flag but only serves himself, not his country.
“A man who admires authoritarianism and strongmen, would weaken our national security by striking an unjust peace deal with Putin over the heads of Ukrainians. For all his beer and fags, he is outwith the proud tradition of the UK for standing up to tyranny.”
When asked to respond to these claims, a Reform UK spokesperson burst into laughter, saying: “What, a party that wants to increase defence spending up to three per cent compared to parties that have been cutting defence spending, and we’re the threat to national security? You’ve got to be kidding me.
“There’s no praise for Vladimir Putin. There’s criticism of his behaviour and his actions. Christ alive. Are you taking the tablets?”
Asked about Mr Malins, the spokesperson added: “Yes he’s an eccentric sort of character but he is a single candidate. He’s a KC, probably more intelligent than you and me put together. However, a very eccentric one.
“He has eccentric views on foreign policy. They are not ones that the party or Farage shares.”
