Fighting the threat from Putin will take teamwork. But who trusts Johnson’s Britain? | Martin Kettle

A country that spends its time antagonising allies and threatening trade wars needs to grow up and get real, fast

The default view at Westminster and in most of the media is that Vladimir Putin has saved Boris Johnson’s skin, for the present. The reflex on the Conservative backbenches is that the prospect of a European war means this is no time for a leadership change. In reality, of course, the reverse is true. Russia’s seizure of parts of Ukraine this week makes the case for replacing Johnson far stronger. That does not mean it will happen – the police investigating “partygate” and the voters have not yet spoken – but it should.

Putin’s annexation of the Donbas provinces is an epochal event. It is an assault on a sovereign European state and a western ally. From the Gulf of Finland in the north to the Danube delta in the south, it ratchets up the military threat to a string of other vulnerable European nations. It redefines at a stroke the security and energy assumptions of our entire continent for a decade and more.

Martin Kettle is a Guardian columnist

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