Putin Offended by Johnson’s “Strip to the Waist” Jibe

Vladimir Putin answered questions from media representatives in Turkmenistan on June 29.

Russian President Vladimir Putin answered questions from media representatives in Turkmenistan. He explained the goals of his so-called “special operation” in Ukraine and denied any part in the missile attack on a shopping mall in Kremenchuk.

He also commented on a joke cracked by Boris Johnson, in which the British Prime Minister suggested that world leaders attending G7 should ‘strip to the waist’ to mimic an old photograph of the Russian leader shirtless.

“I don’t know if they [G7 leaders] wanted to strip to the waist or below the waist, but I think it would have been a disgusting sight either way,” Putin said, answering a question about this week’s G7 meeting in Germany.

The exclusion of Russia from the G7 and now G20 has been a painful blow for him.

He repeated that the aims of the “special operation” in Ukraine are to help Donbas and receive security guarantees. On the topic of the terrorist attack on the shopping mall in Kremenchuk, he said that “there was no terrorist attack…The Russian army does not strike at civilian targets.”

However, on June 28 President Zelensky published a video clip of the missile attack on the shopping mall. It is one of the bloodiest episodes of the current war,  along with the massacre in Bucha and the deadly shelling of the railway station in Kramatorsk.

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There are no military facilities near the Amstor shopping center in Kremenchuk. Two rockets were fired by Russia. One hit the shopping center and the other the local stadium.